Ford’s first political fundraiser as premier is ‘open for jobs’ dinner

The first political fundraiser since the Progressive Conservative government loosened campaign finance rules is a decidedly modest affair.

Premier Doug Ford will attend a $25-a-plate spaghetti supper in Kitchener-Waterloo on Friday night.

Billed as an “open for business, open for jobs” dinner, the soldout event is being held at Kitchener’s Bingemans Conference Centre. The Tories are expecting about 200 supporters to attend.

It is significant because it’s Ford’s first official political fundraiser since his government amended the previous rules introduced by former premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals.

Under Wynne’s restrictions, which were put in place after a 2016 Star exposé into Liberal fundraising practices, all MPPs, candidates, and staff were forbidden from attending events where money was raised for political parties. The Tories, who toppled the Grits last June, amended that campaign finance legislation in November’s Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act.

While Finance Minister Vic Fedeli retained the Liberals’ ban on corporate and union donations, some loopholes were reopened. Fedeli repealed a section of the previous electoral finance reform bill that forced donors to “certify, in a form approved by the Chief Electoral Officer, that the person has not acted contrary” to the prohibition on unions or corporations making donations in the name of members or employees.

Both Conservative and Liberal fundraising experts have privately admitted that’s a loophole all political parties could exploit.