Candidate

Lai, Cynthia

Lai, Cynthia raised $236,100 from 559 contributors across 4 Toronto municipal campaigns, 2014–2022.

Photo: City of Toronto, 2018-2022 council term.

$236,100Total raised

629Contributions

559Contributors

$300Median gift

4Campaigns

1/2Won

$13.92Per vote received

Across all campaigns4 campaigns · 2014–2022

Raised by campaign

Each bar is one campaign for one office. Totals are what was filed with the City Clerk, before any contribution returned. Two campaigns in the same year means this candidate left the first race before the nomination deadline and registered for the second — a person may seek only one office at a time, and contributions cannot be moved between campaigns.

2022 · Councillor, Ward 23

$95,720 · 208

2018 (25 Wards) · Councillor, Ward 23

$89,700 · 261

2014 · Councillor, Ward 41

$49,180 · 158

2014 · Councillor, Ward 39

$1,500 · 2

Results

Official results from the City's poll-by-poll releases. Money raised per vote received divides contributions by votes — it is not what the campaign spent, because the archive holds contributions and not expenses.

Campaign	Office	Votes	Raised	Per vote	Outcome
2022 Municipal Election	Councillor W23	—	$95,720.00	—	Died during campaign
2018 Municipal Election (25 Wards)	Councillor W23	5,589	$89,700.00	$16.05	Elected5,589 votes$16.05/vote
2014 Municipal Election	Councillor W41	4,387	$49,180.00	$11.21	Defeated4,387 votes$11.21/vote
2014 Municipal Election	Councillor W39	—	$1,500.00	—	Dropped out

Contributor types

Individual, corporate and union money across every campaign.

Every contribution came from an individual — no corporate or union money.

When corporate and union money was allowed

Corporate and union contributions were legal in the 2006 Toronto election and flowed to every office. They were barred from city council and mayoral campaigns from the 2010 election onward.

That ban did not cover school board trustee campaigns, which ran under provincial rules and kept accepting corporate and union money legally through 2014 — 148 such contributions to Toronto District School Board trustees in 2010 and 166 in 2014. A province-wide ban closed that gap for the 2018 election.

Third party advertisers, a category that first existed in 2018, were not covered by either ban and could still accept corporate and union contributions.

A small residue of corporate contributions to council campaigns survives after the ban — 23 in 2010 and 12 in 2014 — which the City publishes as filed and does not verify.

This candidate ran for council or mayor only, so any corporate or union money here should fall in 2006.

Largest contributors

Across every campaign. A contributor is identified by their full name and postal code together; 12 of these gave in more than one election. Individuals are shown by postal area only; organizations in full.

Contributor	Postal area	Total	Gifts	Campaigns
Cai, Bin	M2R	$2,400.00	2	2
Cai, Xiaoming	M2R	$2,400.00	2	2
Guo, Mengjie	M2R	$2,400.00	2	2
Huang, Zeju	M2R	$2,400.00	2	2
Xu, Feng	L5M	$2,400.00	2	2
Lem, Jeffrey	M9A	$2,200.00	2	2
Leung, Margaret	L4B	$1,796.00	3	3
Chen, Lixun	L4G	$1,500.00	2	2
Wassermuhl, Salomon	M5S	$1,500.00	2	2
Yee, Shirley	L3R	$1,500.00	2	2
Ji, Xiaoshuo	L3T	$1,400.00	2	2
Yu, Tinald	L3P	$1,200.00	3	3

Where the money came from

By forward sortation area — the first three characters of the postal code, which is the finest geography the City publishes for individual donors. Shading is by quantile, so each band holds a fifth of the areas with money: contribution totals are skewed enough that equal dollar intervals would put almost every area in the lightest band.

Total contributed$150–$338$338–$648$648–$1,500$1,500–$2,700$2,700–$14,942none

52 of 96 Toronto postal areas have contributions on record. Boundaries adapted from Statistics Canada, 2021 Census cartographic boundary files.

Toronto and beyond

47% of this money came from outside Toronto, which the map above does not cover.

Toronto$124,248.00 · 52.6%

Central Ontario (905)$110,376.00 · 46.7%

Southwestern Ontario$1,476.00 · 0.6%

Ranked areas

$16,742 · 48

$14,942 · 60

$12,554 · 31

$12,472 · 30

$11,852 · 46

$11,806 · 21

$10,400 · 12

$10,078 · 30

$9,706 · 27

$6,794 · 18

One campaign at a timeFigures below describe a single campaign, not the whole career

When the money came in

Monthly totals for one campaign. Contribution dates exist only from 2018 onward; the 2006–2014 Open Data releases never published them, so earlier campaigns cannot be charted this way.

Campaign

2022 Municipal Election — Councillor W23 · 7 months of contributions