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Justin Trudeau speaks to supporters in a video distributed by the Liberal Party of Canada on Monday May 6, 2013.HO/The Canadian Press

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The federal Conservatives have, for many years, been the masters of party financing.

With the help of tens of thousands of regular donors, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has slashed a per-vote subsidy without seeing his party gasp for cash infusions even as it paid for extensive between-election advertising campaigns.

But Mr. Harper may have to steel himself for a return volley as his opponents become more successful in raising funds of their own.

Just this week, the Liberals sent out a video of Justin Trudeau, dressed in shorts and a tee shirt, thanking donors for the more than $1-million they have given his party since he became the leader on April 14. That compares to the $1.7-million that the Liberal party raised in the entire first quarter on 2013.

On a more micro-scale, non-partisan but decidedly anti-Harper groups are finding it's becoming easier to raise money to fund their own attacks on the Conservative government. One of them is ShitHarperDid.com, which launched a video campaign aimed at the Tories during the 2011 election and then fell silent before regrouping at the start of April.

The first project after the rebirth was to overdub the ubiquitous Economic Action Plan ads which cost taxpayers $21-million in 2011-12 with a sound track that mocks the government's claims that its efforts have led to prosperity.

"People in our community were so enthusiastic about it, they suggested it should be on TV. The thought had never crossed our minds," said Sean Devlin, one of the group's founders.

Ten days ago, Mr. Devlin and his colleagues put out a call on the ShitHarperDid.com website asking for $6,000 to pay for one national prime-time spot. Within four hours, they surpassed the goal. By Tuesday morning of this week, more than $32,000 had been raised and there is now enough money to pay for at least four national prime-time spots and about 20 late-night spots.

So the new target is $95,000, which would pay for time during a playoff hockey game where the ad would be seen by a million people.

"The fact that something like 1,200 strangers are chipping in hard-earned money at times when the economy, frankly, is not working for a lot of us, was really inspiring," said Mr. Devlin.

One of the interesting twists in third-party fundraising is that groups like ShitHarperDid.com are not governed by laws that prevent political parties from taking more than $1,200 per year from individual donors. And there are no limits to the amounts they can spend on advertising between election campaigns. (During federal election campaigns, third parties may not spend more than $200,100 on political advertising and must report all expenses over $500.)

Donations to third-parties do not reap the same generous tax deductions as political donations. But a major benefactor with an axe to grind could cause a significant political advertising ruckus.

Meanwhile, the Liberals are crowing over the money that is flowing their way.

One of the likely reasons that the party raised just $1.7-million in the first quarter of this year – which was more than the $1.6-million raised by the New Democrats but much less that the $4.5-million raised by the Conservatives – is that many regular donors were giving money to leadership candidates instead, Liberal officials explained this week. The Liberal candidates collectively raised about $1.6-million in the same quarter. They had to pay a $75,000 entry fee to the party plus 10 per cent of all money they raised.

The question now becomes whether the level of donations received during the first weeks of Mr. Trudeau's tenure can be sustained – and whether the party can expand the number of regular donors who automatically give money every month.

The party officials say they are cautiously optimistic that those regular channels of cash are growing because a higher number of people opted to sign up for the monthly donation program during April. The Liberals say they can keep them, "as long as we continue to treat them well and steward them and never take them for granted."

Gloria Galloway is a parliamentary reporter in the Ottawa bureau.

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