Follow the Money: Tracking The Influence Of Third Party Donors on Democracy

This project collects and analyzes data about third party advertisers in Canadian federal elections. Third party advertisers are permitted to accept large donations from individuals, unions, and corporations, and to use these funds to directly intervene in Canadian elections, and yet we know very little about how these organizations operate. This project compiles third party advertiser financial returns in order to create a single searchable and public repository of all third party donations and spending since 2000. It then leverages those data to investigate who funds these organizations and which types of interests they advance in the public sphere. The expected benefit of this project to the IJF is increased readership for its public interest investigative journalism.

Faculty Supervisor:

Christopher Cochrane

Student:

Partner:

Investigative Journalism Foundation

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation; Information and cultural industries; Other services (except public administration)

University:

University of Toronto

Program: