Financial reports from the last federal election suggest money counts, as candidates in Nunavut who spent the most money last spring won the most votes.

Conservative member of Parliament Leona Aglukkaq had tens of thousands of dollars at her disposal from the Conservative Riding Association and private donors.

Her campaign put up hundreds of signs and travelled all over the vast territory.

In all, Aglukkaq spent $65,000. She won easily with almost half the vote.

Her nearest challenger was Liberal Paul Okalik who spent almost $62,000 on his campaign.

As a former Nunavut premier, he was easily as well known as Aglukkaq before the campaign. He came a distant second, with little more than half the votes Aglukkaq received.

New Democratic Party candidate Jack Hicks came in third place. He spent about $7,500 on his campaign.

Green Party candidate Scott MacCallum was the underdog in the May election. He had a grand total of $44.56 in donations, and he had no travel or advertising budget.

“Pretty much the only thing that I did end up spending money on was my cell phone bill,” said MacCallum.

Kevin Milligan is an economics professor at the University of British Columbia who studies campaign spending.

He said such spending tends to favour an MP running for re-election.

“It allows an incumbent to run up the margin of victory compared to what they would have had without the spending,” said Milligan.

Nunavut is the largest federal electoral district in size in Canada.