A SLIPPERY SLOPE
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been doing some fancy skating on thin ice. His lapses in ethical rigour and lame explanations are providing ammunition for the opposition, inviting the scrutiny of parliamentary watchdogs and disappointing the public.
Revelations have been mounting about cabinet ministers and the prime minister himself headlining $1,500-a-head fundraisers in the private homes of wealthy Canadians, attended by influential businesspeople.
Events that offer face time with politicians in exchange for donations to party coffers are an ethical minefield. Government business is not supposed to be discussed, except who’s going to prevent it? These events sell exclusive access to officeholders at a price only the rich can afford. And they send an unfortunate message that the ears of decision-makers can be bent in chats in informal settings outside of regular business hours — no matter how much the prime minister doth protest he can’t be bought for a mere $1,500.
Canada’s lobbying commissioner and ethics czar are both investigating whether any rules have been broken. At the very least, Trudeau seems to have blatantly violated the stringent guidelines he set out for his own MPs and ministers when he was elected a year ago.
Most damaging, however, is that the prime minister has tried to defend the indefensible. He initially claimed the fundraisers were open to any Canadian, even though most would consider the cost prohibitive. Then he contradicted assurances by Liberal Party officials that no government business is discussed at these cocktails by admitting he gets lobbied (but not swayed) all the time. Now he’ll have the public believe that when he rubs shoulders with tycoons, he uses it as an opportunity to champion the plight of the middle class.
And if Trudeau weren’t already standing on the edge of such an ethical slippery slope, there probably wouldn’t be so many questions raised about a surge over the past few years of donations to the Trudeau Foundation, a charitable trust set up to honour his father. While the prime minister has distanced himself from its governance, he must do more to ensure that prospective donors are disabused of any notion that their generosity will be in any way reciprocated.
Even if Trudeau’s arm can’t be twisted for the price of a political donation, some may well get the impression that you have to pay to play. And when it comes to maintaining public trust, impressions matter.
Trudeau should start living up to the lofty standards he touted when he took office, and enshrine them in law. Canadians expect no less.