National Post (National Edition)
Make ethics rule book law, NDP urges
Party must avoid ‘hypocrisy’ on issue, critic says
OTTAWA • The NDP want the Liberals to turn their party’s ethics guidelines into law after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted Monday that people attending Liberal party fundraising events bend his ear about “things that are important to them.”
New Democrat ethics critic Alexandre Boulerice told reporters that when the House of Commons returns after the holidays, he will table a private member’s bill that, if passed, would turn the Liberals’ Open and Accountable Government guidelines into the law of the land.
“We expect the Liberals to vote in favour of the Liberals’ rules. If they don’t, it will only show their own hypocrisy,” Boulerice said, just hours after Trudeau admitted at a year-end press conference that his appearances at fundraisers mean he’s approached by people who want to raise issues with him.
The Open and Accountable Government document, posted online after the Liberals won last fall’s election, says political fundraising activities should not affect or even “appear to affect” the exercise of ministers’ and parliamentary secretaries’ duties.
“There should be no preferential access to government, or appearance of preferential access, accorded to individuals or organizations because they have made financial contributions to politicians and political parties,” it says.
Ethics commissioner Mary Dawson has pointed out that she can’t conduct investigations based on the wording of those guidelines, but only based on what is contained in Canada’s conflict-of-interest laws.
That’s why the NDP want to pass legislation based on the guidelines, something they say should satisfy all parties. “They’re good rules. They should be enforced,” said the NDP’s deputy ethics critic Daniel Blaikie. “I don’t know why you would suggest rules if you don’t want to see them enforced.”
Boulerice said Trudeau’s comments were a “bizarre and strange admission,” since Liberals “have always pretended that there was no government business” at fundraisers. Some recent fundraising events have cost guests as much as $1,500 per head, for which they get to rub shoulders with Trudeau and other high-profile members of cabinet.
“Any time I meet anyone, they will have questions for me, or they will take the opportunity to talk to the prime minister about things that are important to them,” Trudeau told reporters.
“In various Liberal party events, I listen to people as I will in any given situation, but the decisions I take in government are ones based on what is right for Canadians and not on what an individual in a fundraiser might say.”
Trudeau noted he participates in many events that are not open to the public, including with municipal leaders, business owners and security officials. He said that in all situations, the government is “extraordinarily open to multiple perspectives” but people at fundraisers don’t have “particular or special access on policy.”
The prime minister would not say if he will support a Bloc Québécois bill — which the NDP also supports — seeking to reinstate federal subsidies for political parties. Those were eliminated by the Conservatives in 2011 in the face of concerns that parties would find other, less savoury ways to raise money.
Opposition MPs continued to hammer at the issue in question period on Monday afternoon.
After interim Conservative Party leader Rona Ambrose asked how the prime minister can be “so blind on ethics,” House leader Bardish Chagger reiterated that the prime minister and the government are available to Canadians — “whether it be at town halls, whether it be anywhere that anybody wants to be able to talk to the prime minister.”
Recent polls indicate a majority of Canadians disapprove of fundraisers featuring the sitting prime minister.
WHY YOU WOULD SUGGEST RULES IF YOU DON’T WANT THEM ENFORCED?