Flush with cash, Conservatives plan to roll out more ads touting Poilievre

The chair of the federal Conservative Party’s powerful fundraising arm said Friday the Tories are flush with cash and they’ll spend more money than previously planned to roll out more ads touting leader Pierre Poilievre.

As part of Poilievre’s summer rebrand, the party deployed a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that depicts the leader as a family man.

One is narrated by his wife, Ana Poilievre, and features the leader at home with their daughter, Valentina.

In another ad, Poilievre softly recites his key message.

“Everything seems broken in Canada. Unaffordable. Unsafe. Divided. But we can put the pieces back together,” he says while playing with a puzzle.

Long known for attack-dog-style in Parliament, the ads are part of a deliberate effort to soften his image and make him more appealing to swing voters in key ridings.

The ads have shown up on TV — including during highly rated late-summer Toronto Blue Jays games — on radio and digital platforms and in print media.

‘More ads ready to go’

Rob Staley, the Conservative Fund chair and former prime minister Stephen Harper’s ex-lawyer, said the party will use its surplus to roll out similar ads in the coming months.

“The campaign has been and continues to be successful. We have more ads ready to go,” Staley said in an early morning address to delegates assembled in Quebec City for the party’s policy convention.

“We have a lot more to tell Canadians about the failures of the Trudeau government and we’re going to do just that. We’re going to spend more than budgeted on advertising and going on tour.”

The party is determined to get an edge up on the governing Liberals and spend more than they do before the next election, Staley said.

The Conservative Party retired all 2021 election-related loans last year (the party had owed about $23 million) and all the cash pouring in now is earmarked for the fund’s “principal objective” — defeating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his party in the next campaign, he said.

Looking for more from donors

The party already has set aside money for the next election and it plans to spend the maximum amount it can under the Elections Canada spending cap of roughly $30 million, Staley said.

The fund chair wouldn’t say just how much is in the party’s election bank account but he said the party plans to take on as little debt as possible.

To accomplish that, Staley said, the party will be asking donors to dig a little deeper and send more cash to party headquarters.

According to Deloitte’s independent audit of the party’s finances, published in December 2022, the party had $12,981,113 in cash on hand at year end.

WATCH: What’s up with Pierre Poilievre’s new look?

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has ditched the glasses and started wearing more casual clothes in a bid to widen his appeal to voters.

The party has set non-election year fundraising records in the first and second quarters of 2023, with more than $16 million collected, easily outpacing the Liberals. Staley said he’s determined to keep up the momentum.

“I make no apologies for the calls, emails and texts we send — I know people don’t always like to get them — because they’re critical to achieving the goal that we all share. We will not be reluctant to ask for more,” Staley said.

“We are a year into Pierre’s leadership this week and we have accomplished so much but much more needs to be done.”

That includes adding more stops to Poilievre’s cross-country tour. Poilievre’s jam-packed summer schedule was designed to highlight the government’s perceived failures on inflation, affordability and housing.

The cost of fundraising is one of the party’s biggest expenses.

Last year, the party spent more than $6 million to raise $23 million.

While the Liberals typically raise less than the Conservatives, they don’t spend as much to collect those donations.

Staley said the party’s trying to reduce those costs so they get more out of the dollars they bring in.

Fewer administrative expenses means more money for ads and an ambitious pre-election tour schedule for the leader and his wife, Staley said.

He said it cost the party 30 cents to raise $1 last year. As of June 30, he added, the party has whittled that down to 27 cents.

That’s the first time it’s ever been below the 30-cent threshold, he added — something he attributes to reduced costs at the call centres that solicit funds from party members.

Staley said Poilievre is the party’s best fundraiser because his low-cost appeals on social media, which typically feature clips of his question period attacks on the government, bring in a lot of money. 

Poilievre will address convention delegates in a prime-time address Friday night. Observers say it’s the most important speech of his leadership so far.