BIG-BUCKS BREAKFAST FEEDS NDP COFFERS

Michael Smyth

It was just a few days ago that NDP Leader John Horgan questioned Premier Christy Clark’s ethics for throwing a $10,000-a-plate private fundraising dinner.

So how does the NDP boss follow up his lofty lecturing? By flying to Toronto to host a $5,000-a-plate fundraising breakfast, of course.

Horgan’s big-bucks breaky was held Wednesday morning at the Toronto Board of Trade offices.

Let’s just say that it wasn’t exactly the hottest ticket in Hogtown. A party official told me “about eight” Toronto business types forked out cash for the pricey bacon and eggs.

Still, the New Democrats say they were happy with the turnout since the goal was to sell just 10 tickets for the intimate gathering.

And eight tickets at $5,000 apiece would still net the NDP $40,000 in receipts. Not bad for a party that raised just $133,000 in 2014 for all corporate donations combined for the entire year.

“The event was aimed at Ontario companies interested in investing in British Columbia,” a party official told me.

“It was an opportunity to meet the leader of the Opposition, get to know him and listen to what he had to say.”

But wait. This is the same John Horgan who just ripped Clark’s $10,000-a-plate private fundraising dinner hosted by the chancellor of Simon Fraser University.

Ten people attended that one, netting a cool $100,000 for Clark’s B.C. Liberals.

“It seems like a question of ethics,” Horgan told Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason.

“I can understand why the public might think that the premier is selling access to her position at these private dinners.”

So Clark is “selling access,” but Horgan isn’t?

The NDP says it’s not as two-faced as it seems.

“We publicized our event and printed up leaflets to promote it,” said NDP spokeswoman Trish Webb.

“It wasn’t a secret dinner held in a private home. I don’t see the Liberals printing up leaflets for their private events.”

That didn’t prevent the Liberals from suggesting Horgan is a hypocrite for criticizing Clark and then essentially copycatting her.

But here’s the truth: They’re all a bunch of phonies because they all do same thing and then criticize each other for doing it.

Back when the NDP was in power, then-Liberal leader Gordon Campbell slammed then-premier Glen Clark for “selling access” at political fundraisers.

Then Campbell did the same thing when he took power and the NDP slammed him back.

Before the last election, then-NDP leader Adrian Dix held a series of pricey business receptions, including a “Martini Madness” event that promised booze and face time with the presumed premier-in-waiting.

The Liberals fumed, but now here’s Clark throwing her own private mind-melds with the Howe Street crowd, while Horgan wags his finger and then essentially does the same thing.

The bottom line: The NDP has promised to ban all corporate and union donations to political parties, something the Liberals will never do because they score huge donations from big business.

Until the rules change, it’s business as usual for both parties. Bring your appetite. And bring money.