MLAs campaign tops 87k
Kelowna-West MLA Ben Stewart outspent his opponents en route to winning the riding's byelection in February.
Finance reports released by Elections BC show that Stewart's budget for the campaign hit $87,789.70.
That's compared to $50,483.74 for the Green Party's Robert Stupka, and $49,337.52 from the NDP's Shelley Cook.
Conservative Mark Thompson spent $6,418.50, while Libertarian Kyle Geronazzo didn't do any spending – other than the $250 dollar nomination fee.
However, the reports show that the top three candidates had to personally raise similar amounts of cash.
The Liberals pumped almost $51,000 into Stewart's campaign, which is more than the other four parties combined.
Both the Greens and NDP gave $21,000 toward Stupka and Cook's campaigns, respectively.
The Conservatives spent about $5300 on Thompson, while the Libertarians did not fund Geronazzo.
As far as how much each candidate spent per vote received, Stupka was highest, at $26 spent/vote received.
Cook came in at $14/vote, while Stewart spent roughly $10/vote.
Despite getting far fewer votes, low spending gave the bottom two finishers the best spend-per-vote averages.
Thompson came in at just $6, while Geronazzo paid slightly more than a toonie for each of his 121 votes.
Advertising was the prime expense for the four candidates who spent money, with Stewart incurring over $19,000 worth.
Stupka's ad budget came in at $17,000, with Cook right behind at $16,000.
Stewart's won the byelection in February, winning 56% of the votes.
The win came nearly five years after stepping down as MLA to accomodate former Premier Christy Clark, after she was named Liberal Leader.
