Source Note: You can access and track the OLP leadership fundraising data yourself through Elections Ontario’s Political Parties and Leadership Contestants Real-Time Disclosure (RTD) of Contributions table.
Data Note: Elections Ontario excludes aggregated donations below $200, has a 15-day reporting delay from candidates, and a two-day posting delay to the website.
#1 Navdeep Bains:
Began collecting donations on May 25, 2026
$345,580 raised from 211 donations
58 maximum donations totalling $198,650
$1,637 average donation
# 2 Lee Fairclough:
Began collecting donations on May 8, 2026
$236,189 raised from 190 donations
31 maximum donations totalling $106,175
$1,243 average donation
#3 Dylan Marando:
Began collecting donations on April 22, 2026
$139,219 raised from 151 donations
14 maximum donations totalling $47,950
$921 average donation
#4 Eric Lombardi:
Began collecting donations on June 9, 2026
$136,633 raised from 116 donations
19 maximum donations totalling $65,075
$1,177 average donation
Four Candidates?
This may or may not be the last day with four candidates in the race, as the candidate registration deadline will come and go at 5:00 PM. Two further candidates are rumoured, but we won’t have a final list until the greenlighting committee weighs in. That should happen with time to spare ahead of the first debate of the contest on August 10.
Leveraging Fundraising Dollars
Nav Bains remains the only candidate to crack the $300,000 mark and 200 donors. While his fundraising has slowed to a crawl, his campaign is more focused on using its significant financial advantage to tour the province and sign up members ahead of the September deadline.
Grassroots Support
Both Lee Fairclough and Dylan Marando added a number of new donors and their dollars to their teams over the last two weeks, outpacing both Bains and Lombardi. It will be interesting to see if their pace continues throughout August. Marando’s pace has helped keep him in third place in the fundraising charts. However, both he and Lombardi still have some work to do to fundraise the complete candidate fee.
Potential Challengers
Two potential challengers may still enter the race and will need to quickly raise the funds to cover the installments of the candidate fee before they are due. By the end of August, all candidates — no matter when they entered the race — will have to cough up a total of $100,000 in installment payments. Two final payments of $25,000 will be due in each of September and October. It’s a tough hill to climb.
We’re aiming to provide biweekly updates on how the candidates are doing with fundraising. With the membership deadline still months away, fundraising will be one of the few metrics we can track to gauge how the race is going. Stay tuned!
Progress Canada is audience-supported by people like you who care about carving out a space for progressive political analysis in Canada. Here are two quick ways you can help us keep delivering these conversations.
Subscribe to our Substack:
Get notified about new episodes and deep-dive articles delivered in-app or directly to your inbox so you never miss an update.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel:
Watch our full episodes, catch exclusive video clips, and drop your takes in the comments to help drive the algorithm.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.