Does having a party leader for an MP bring in the big bucks for the local riding association?

As some of you have no doubt discerned from my recent posts, I've been spending a bit of time going through the oft-overlooked annual financial reports from riding associations -- a fascinating, if often befuddling task which, as such activities so often do, too often raises more questions than it answers.

On the other hand, it occasionally also provides intriguing answers to questions one otherwise might not have thought to ask -- like, for instance, whether having a party leader as your local MP causes an EDA's coffers to runneth over.

A quick check of the 2011 balance sheet for the relevant ridings reveals that it's not quite that simple, although there does appear to be some correlation between the state of the local finances and the fate of the leader in question during the last election.

Elections Canada records reveal that the MVMP on the 2011 EDA fundraising circuit was Green Party leader Elizabeth May, whose Saanich Gulf Islands riding association raked in an astonishing $154,743.14 from more than 3,000 individual contributors, including 33 donations over $1,000 and nearly $5,000 in anonymous donations of $20 or less.

Running a distant-but-still second was the PM's home riding association of Calgary Southwest, which pulled in a cool $80,507.50 from 400-odd contributors, ten of whom -- including both Stephen Harper and his wife, who, interestingly, is listed as "Laureen Teskey" -- gave $1,100, the maximum allowed at the time.

Meanwhile, in Toronto Danforth, the riding represented by Jack Layton until his death last summer, the local NDP EDA raised $57,726.25 from 740 supporters -- more than half of whom donated less than the $20 minimum required for their names to be disclosed to Elections Canada, and $1,100 from Layton himself on February 16th.

Finally, bringing up the rear -- and somewhat fittingly, given the results of the last election -- is the Etobicoke Lakeshore Liberal EDA, the erstwhile home base of one-time Official Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff, which mustered up a mere $21,089.30 in 2011, with only 30 contributions over $200, and less than a hundred giving less than that.

As for former Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, his riding association has yet to file its 2011 return, but if Laurier Ste. Marie follows the trend shown by the other riding associations profiled above, it's a good bet that it won't be reporting a banner year.