Before the first ballot was over, the six Progressive Conservative leadership contenders had spent more money trying to win their party's top job than the party spent trying to win the last provincial general election.
The perceived front runner, Gary Mar, spent $1.1 million leading up to the first ballot, according to his campaign. With his 24,195 votes on that ballot, the cost of attracting each voter was $45.
Mar said he attributes the high cost of the race in part to Alberta's size.
"To me the difference between this and any MLA's race is that MLAs run within their own ridings, obviously relatively small in the larger centres," he said. "If you are going to say that you are going to be a premier for all of Alberta then you have to run in all of Alberta."
Alison Redford's campaign pegged its first ballot expenses at about $900,000, putting her average ballot at $81.
She said the cost of the race doesn't surprise her, considering how important it is.
"If we have to invest money in making sure that there is a vibrant debate about who that candidate should be and who that premier should be then I think that is a good investment," she said.
"If that is where Albertans think it is important to make their contribution then I think that says something about the process," she added.
Local MLA Doug Horner's volunteer-run campaign raised about $750,000 leading up to the first ballot. According to his campaign team, most of those funds were spent, which puts the cost of each one of his votes at $86.
Horner said comparing this race to the last election isn't necessarily a fair comparison.
"The last provincial election lasted 28 days. This campaign has lasted nine months and it is still not over," he said.
He argued the leadership race should be shorter, but he said in the race today sometimes the only way to get your message to the public is to spend money.
"If you are not going to make a headline by saying something outrageous or something contentious there are only two other ways to get your message out, that is either one-on-one or buying the ad," he said.
Doug Griffiths, who ran the most inexpensive campaign, spent approximately $100,000, which places the average cost of his votes at $41.
In the weeks before the first ballot, Ted Morton reported he had raised just over $1 million in his bid. The Gazette was unable to reach Morton, but if he spent all of that funding, he spent $143 for every ballot cast.
Rick Orman did not publicly disclose how much his campaign raised or spent.
By contrast, in the last provincial election campaign in 2008, the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Alliance spent about $6 for every voter they attracted, the NDP spent about $10 and the Alberta Liberals got the most bang for their buck at about $2.60.
Uphill battle
Surjit Rai, a marketing professor at NAIT's J.R. Shaw School of Business, said in marketing terms the candidates are paying a very high cost of acquisition for each Tory vote.
He acknowledged that the candidates have an uphill battle in what they are trying to sell.
"Generally, it costs between four and eight times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing customer happy," he said noting "new customers" is what all the candidates are essentially reaching for.
He also said it can be hard to engage people in politics when things are generally looking up.
"I think it is voter apathy a lot. Things are relatively good. The economy is doing relatively well compared to the rest of the world," he said. "I think we don't have it bad enough to make us go out and vote."
He equates purchasing a political party membership and voting as akin to buying a gym membership, because the reward is not an instant one, but takes time to see results.
"You have the initial fervour and it tends to sort of wane off and it is the same sort of thing with political parties," he said.
Julie Sedivy, a University of Calgary linguistics professor who focuses on messaging in politics, said encouraging people to get out and vote is actually one of the toughest cases to make.
"There is an estimate that the probability that your vote is going to have an impact on the outcome of an election is actually lower than the probability you are going to be killed in a car accident," she said. "When you look at it from that perspective it is kind of shocking that anyone ever votes at all."
On the other hand, with fewer voters and fewer people involved, this race gives the candidates more incentive to try and get their message out.
"Each vote ends up having more than ten times the weight in terms of potential outcome," she said. "So from the perspective of the candidates it is pretty high stakes."
