Why the fundraising free-for-all marches on

Ten years after political donations from big business and big labour were banned outright by the federal government, a fundraising free-for-all continues unabated at Queen’s Park. And will for the foreseeable future. Under fire for Ontario’s lax campaign finance laws, detailed in the Star this week, Premier Kathleen Wynne is now promising to start phasing in reforms by year’s end. Speaking to reporters Wednesday night after her party’s Heritage Dinner, the biggest fundraising event in the Ontario Liberal calendar — “Victory Tables” sell for $18,000 to corporate high flyers — Wynne suggested that such glittering soirees may soon be a thing of the past, just as they have faded from the federal scene.

But what took so long? And why will it take so much longer for Ontario, which boasts the second-biggest government in Canada, to catch up to Ottawa and four smaller provinces that have already declared all corporate and union donations illegal?

Blame the politics behind political fundraising. While the status quo satisfies the party in power, it also suits the opposition parties that lust for power — dreaming of one day milking the same lucrative system to their own advantage.

Hence the long conspiracy of silence in the Ontario legislature about serious campaign finance reform. Until recent media coverage, neither the opposition Progressive Conservatives nor the thirdplace NDP were demanding that Queen’s Park adopt those federal reforms, hoping to have their turn at the trough.

While the status quo satisfies the governing party, it also suits the opposition parties that lust for power

And while the cash flow comes courtesy of big corporations and unions, all Ontarians pay a heavy price for the democratic deficit when donors later demand audiences with the politicians they bankroll.

The governing Liberals are the winners in this game of mutual assured destruction and financial depletion, raising $8.2 million in the 2014 election year (the latest available figures). But the Tories still earned a hefty $7.3 million, while the New Democrats raised a respectable $5.6 million.

There’s a reason the opposition parties keep fantasizing about catching up in this game of financial chicken if the roles are ever reversed. Back when the Progressive Conservatives were in power, they were the big winners in the fundraising and spending sweepstakes, raising about $9 million in 2002 — almost double the combined receipts of their Liberal ($3 million) and NDP ($2.5 million) rivals mired in opposition.

Now, after 13 years in office, the Ontario Liberal Fund has perfected the dark art of squeezing corporate and union donors. As reported in columns earlier this week, the most bankable cabinet ministers are assigned targets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, in some cases reaching $500,000 annually.

The latest exposés proved expedient for the NDP, which cited Tuesday’s fundraising story in an email appeal to mount a fresh fundraising push of its own on the same day:

“Did you see the cover of the Toronto Star this morning? The front page story is about Kathleen Wynne’s dinner tomorrow night that is expected to rake in $3 million.”

Another NDP email blast spoke earnestly about the “grassroots heritage” of party fundraisers for “regular folks” — typically “a pot luck dinner and some cold beer with our friends in a church basement.”

That image hardly squares with the relentless fundraising of Ontario’s New Democrats, whose reliance on traditional union contributions has morphed into a no-holdsbarred pitch to corporate patrons, notably big mining firms. Last December, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath eschewed a church basement for an opera house — Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts — for her “Inside Track” fundraiser where tickets to the “Leader’s Circle” cost $9,975 (for 10 guests, two of whom could attend a “Private Reception”).

That $9,975 figure coincides with Ontario’s current limit for donors, though companies and unions can easily multiply that amount severalfold through various loopholes.

The Tories have also profited from the Liberal excesses, with MPP Monte McNaughton accusing the government of having its hand in the political cookie jar. Left unsaid by McNaughton was that he quietly organized his own $1,000-a-head fundraiser earlier this month.

McNaughton knows a thing or two about fundraising because he ran for his party’s leadership in 2015. Bizarrely, there are no limits on corporate, union or individual donations in the leadership races that could determine the next premier.

Remarkably, one PC leadership candidate accepted a record donation of $100,000 in 2015 from the heir to a forestry fortune. More than a loophole, that’s a black hole — and a black mark on provincial politics.

Compare Ontario’s limitless leadership races to the federal system, where individual donations to all candidates in a party leadership race are limited to $1,525 in total (companies still cannot donate).

While all three provincial parties have long ducked the issue, a voice of relative sanity comes from the new PC Leader Patrick Brown, who argues that Ontario should now adopt the federal standard.

The Tory transformation under Brown can be explained by the fact that he was a sitting MP with the federal Conservatives until last year. But give Brown credit — coming from Ottawa, he could see it coming, while the other parties closed their eyes to the inevitable.

Tomorrow: How Ottawa saw the light on fundraising, and why Ontario remained in the dark.