Since 2019, a total of $2,450 has been donated by elected municipal officials to the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ). At least, that's what we can conclude from the list of donors available on the Elections Québec website.

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The most frequent donation made by current mayors is $100, the maximum amount authorized per year. Given that the last municipal election was held in 2021, former elected officials are also on the list of donors. 

In an article published on Monday, The Canadian Press revealed that almost half of Quebec's mayors and prefects - 503 out of 1138 - have contributed to CAQ financing since the last municipal election in 2021.

Mayors, like all other citizens, have the right to contribute to party financing.

In Vaudreuil-Soulanges, virtually all mayors in the Soulanges riding have contributed to the CAQ's fund, since 2019. Only one elected official in the Vaudreuil riding preferred to support François Legault's party in 2023, even though his riding is in the riding now governed by independent MP Marie-Claude Nichols.

The fact that municipal councillors are contributing to the coffers of a particular political party could have been a matter of course, were it not for the fact that the CAQ's financing methods have raised a number of questions of late. 

CAQ MNAs Louis-Charles Thouin and Sylvain Lévesque are both under investigation by the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly.The opening of the investigation against MNA Thouin follows a request from Québec solidaire MNA Vincent Marissal, after the publication of a Canadian Press report alleging that Mr. Thouin asked mayors in his riding to contribute to CAQ coffers in exchange for a meeting with Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault. 

As for MNA Lévesque, the charges against him relate to an e-mail sent by one of his constituency office employees, in which she suggested that a citizen pay to attend a fund-raising cocktail party so that she could meet Finance Minister Éric Girard, and thus have a chance to advance her file.