Explainer · Elections and lobbying
Campaign contributions, lobbying and votes
Do people tied to organisations that lobby the City give to the councillors they lobby, and do those councillors vote differently on items involving those organisations? This page reports what the records can show and what they cannot.
- Campaigns loaded
- 215
- 2018 election
- Named contributions
- 14,297
- Over $100 each
- Named contribution dollars
- $8.6M
- Net of returned amounts
- Published linked contributions
- 0
- 0 people linked to 0 organisations
People tend to give to candidates who already agree with them, so a difference in voting does not show that a contribution changed a vote. The prior-term and within-member comparisons exist to separate earlier agreement from any change after funding.
Data loaded
Named contribution dollars by election
Mayor and council racesContributions loaded by election· 1 row
| Election | Campaigns | Named contributions | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 215 | 14,297 | $8,646,940 |
Mayor and council races only. The 2018 election comes from the City's campaign contributions open dataset. The 2022 election has no bulk download; lobbyTO has asked the City Clerk for an export and will load it when received. Only contributors whose combined contributions exceeded $100 are named in the source; smaller contributions are not included. Corporate and union contributions are not permitted, so named contributors are individuals.
Linking contributors to organisations
A contributor is linked to an organisation only through public records: tier 1, a registered lobbyist for the organisation; tier 2, a senior officer named on its registration. A decision model scores each match; only matches scoring 0.95 or higher out of 1 are published, and they are not checked by a person. Shared surnames and shared home addresses never create a link.
Candidate matches need the same surname, the same first name or a compatible initial, the same municipality when both records give one, and a contribution within four years of one of the person's registrations. A decision model scores each candidate; matches scoring 0.95 or higher out of 1 are published, without review by a person. Tier 3 (staff of a consultant firm that represents the organisation, not registered on that client's file) is used in council-wide statistics only.
Contributor matches
744 proposed- Candidate matches proposed: 744 (704 not yet scored)
- Published (score 0.95 or higher): 0; below the cutoff: 40
- Published contributions (tiers 1 and 2): 0 from 0 people linked to 0 organisations
Votes and funding organisations
For agenda items linked to an organisation, a decision model judges whether the organisation supported or opposed each contested motion from the registration and the motion text; judgements scoring 0.95 or higher are used (supports: 0, opposes: 0, unclear: 0). A vote is aligned when it matches that position. Unclear positions are not used.
Data not yet available. Council-wide estimates need published contributor matches and organisation positions for items voted on in the same term. They are computed for 2022–2026 once 2022 statements are loaded, and for 2018–2022 from the 2018 data.
People tend to give to candidates who already agree with them, so a difference in voting does not show that a contribution changed a vote. The prior-term and within-member comparisons exist to separate earlier agreement from any change after funding.
Where linked money goes
2018 election, tiers 1–2- Coordinated groups
- 0
- n=0
- Linked total
- 0
- n=0
- Share of named dollars
- 0.0%
- n=0
- Share to committee members
- —
- n=0
- Share to incumbents
- —
- n=0
- Share to mayoral candidates
- —
- n=0
All measures, tiers 1–2 and 1–3· 12 rows
| Election | Tiers | Measure | Value | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 1–2 | coordinated groups | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–2 | linked total | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–2 | share of named dollars | 0.0% | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–2 | share to committee members | — | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–2 | share to incumbents | — | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–2 | share to mayoral candidates | — | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–3 | coordinated groups | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–3 | linked total | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–3 | share of named dollars | 0.0% | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–3 | share to committee members | — | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–3 | share to incumbents | — | 0 |
| 2018 | 1–3 | share to mayoral candidates | — | 0 |
Method and limits
- Members funded by an organisation are compared with unfunded members in the same voting bloc on the same items; each member is also compared with themselves (items from funding organisations against items from organisations that lobbied without funding); returning members are compared with the term before the contributions.
- Member-level rates are shown only with 10 or more votes on items from funding organisations. Below that, votes count only in council-wide estimates.
- Contributions of $100 or less are not named in the source and are excluded.
- lobbyTO does not assess compliance with contribution limits.
- Contributors are shown by name and city only. Home addresses are never published.