Wynne says NDP dragging heels on funding reform
The NDP appears to be stalling on political fundraising reforms because of its financial ties to the Ontario Cornerstone Leadership Corporation, charges Premier Kathleen Wynne.
In the wake of a Star probe of Cornerstone, a union-financed holding company, Wynne wondered if the party’s corporate arrangement explains its opposition to her approach to fixing Ontario’s lax fundraising rules.
“It certainly raises the question for me (that) maybe that’s why there hasn’t been as much uptake of the discussion on substance,” the premier said of NDP Leader Andrea Horwath’s criticism of the Liberal legislative plan.
“If this story — if this revelation — now allows Andrea, or pushes Andrea, to have a conversation with me about substance, that’s a really good thing.”
Horwath countered that it’s Wynne — not her, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown, or Green Leader Mike Schreiner — who is being obstructionist.
“I’d suggest it’s the premier who is dragging this out, by stubbornly digging in and saying it’s ‘her way or the highway’ ” said the NDP leader, who is allied with Brown and Schreiner on the issue.
“We can all agree that it’s time to get the influence of big money out of government and politics in Ontario.”
Cornerstone, which has no listed phone number or website, bought the NDP’s headquarters at 101 Richmond St. E. nine years ago for $3.1 million.
The Star obtained the previously secret 2009 shareholders’ agree- ment that revealed Cornerstone is a complex corporate entity where the Ontario NDP controls all of the Class A common shares.
All of the Class B common shares are owned by eight public-sector and private-sector unions or their locals. These shareholders — United Steelworkers District 6 and National, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (now Unifor), the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, and the Service Employees International Union — have less boardroom power than the NDP with its Class A shares.
The corporate structure is not ille- gal. Wynne is expected to table fundraising reforms next month and it is unclear how that would impact Cornerstone.
Horwath maintained that the NDP and Cornerstone are independent of one another.
According to Elections Ontario, Cornerstone guaranteed a $6-million loan to the NDP to bankroll its 2014 election campaign.
That year, the party paid Cornerstone $273,904.56 for “office and equipment rent.”
A revamp of Ontario’s lax political fundraising law has been a hot topic at Queen’s Park since the Star disclosed on March 29 that provincial Liberal cabinet ministers have party fundraising targets of up to $500,000 apiece.