MPA Major Research Papers
Date of Award
7-15-2024
Degree Type
Major Research Paper
Degree Name
Master of Public Administration
Program
Political Science
Geographical Areas
British Columbia
Abstract
Elected municipal officials make key decisions about the bread-and-butter issues facing their constituents – and yet, little is known about the path to get there. Campaign expenditures within local elections, while regulated and publicly available, are not widely researched. Instead, the research agenda seems laser focused on federal and provincial campaign expenditures. Further, while local elections are seen as an electoral entry point for women, there are still persistent challenges women face. Researching campaign expenditures is important, as it can provide insight into the impacts of regulations, and the spending patterns of specific candidate populations. The research question is two-fold: Do candidates that are women invest more financial and volunteer resources than men throughout their municipal election campaigns? And if so, do they have more favourable election outcomes? This report will leverage data from a survey sent to all nominated candidates in the 2022 British Columbia municipal election. It will also draw on data published centrally by the province, including campaign expenditures and incumbency information. We find that there is no statistically significant relationship between financial campaign investments and sex. However, women do self-report leveraging more volunteers. We also find that a statistically significant relationship between campaign expenditures and overall vote share does exist. Further, in alignment with other studies, female candidates outperformed male in terms of electoral outcomes. Since understudied, this analysis can open the door for more research into the intersection of gender, campaign investments, and election outcomes in a Canadian context.
Recommended Citation
Matthews, Julie, "Bang for Your Buck? Campaign Expenditures, Gender, and Election Outcomes in British Columbia Municipalities" (2024). MPA Major Research Papers. 253.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/lgp-mrps/253