The figures are bleak. According to filings with Elections Canada, the Liberal party raised $912,000 in the quarter that ended in June. That’s just ahead of the New Democrats, who have almost 70 fewer seats in the House of Commons but raised $711,000. Overall this year, the NDP has raised $1.83 million, about $100,000 ahead of the Liberals.

The number of donors to each party is also telling. The Liberals have had the fewest donors in both quarters of the year, just 9,556 this quarter compared to 33,000 for the Conservatives. Not to overdo the auto industry analogy, but if the parties were cars, the NDP would be a hybrid (popular with true believers but not yet mainstream); the Tories would be Corollas (which sell well even if not that attractive), and the Liberals would be as popular as a Hummer with a hemi.