Reform on menu at Liberal fundraising dinner
Premier Wynne touts plan to bring donation rules in line with federal standards
It may not be the last supper — yet.
But Wednesday night’s lavish $1,600-a-plate Liberal Heritage Dinner appears to be a dying tradition, with Premier Kathleen Wynne promising “significant reforms” to wean political parties off corporate and union donations.
Wynne, whose party raised an estimated $2.5 million at the annual event in the cavernous Metro Toronto Convention Centre, skirted the topic in a speech touting her government’s transit and infrastructure investments to create jobs and growth.
“If you listen to the critics, you could end up with the wrong idea,” she said, leading the crowd of about 1,500 through a slide show that included editorial cartoons — some mocking her — and emails.
She later confirmed that highpriced money-making dinners like Wednesday’s event — where diners supped on smoked duck salad and medallions of beef — won’t be on the political menu much longer.
“As we transition away from corporate and union donations and move to more of the system the federal government has in place, the kinds of fundraising events will change, the kinds of initiatives will change,” Wynne told reporters, declining to provide specifics.
“The plan isn’t complete yet. We haven’t worked all of those details out,” she added.
“There will still be a need for political parties to raise money. That need is not going to go away.”
With the existing rules still in place, parties will be pulling out all the stops to raise as much money as they can before any new financing laws are phased in prior to the 2018 provincial election.
The Liberals are fighting some headwinds, and eager to bring in cash to fight the Progressive Conservatives under new leader Patrick Brown, who is sounding more moderate than his predecessors.
Wynne’s popularity has dropped in opinion polls with the controversial decision to partially privatize Hydro One, using the proceeds to improve public transit.
She boasted that the utility sale — criticized by the Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats as a “fire sale” of a cash-generating asset — is a “new way forward” reached after the province hit a “fork-in-the-road moment.”
“Every option was open to us, including the politically easiest option of doing nothing — which is a point underlined by the way my opposition has reacted,” Wynne said in a prepared text that centred on a theme of helping Ontarians get to work or school easier and find good jobs.
“I made the tough decision because it’s what the young job-seeker needs, and it’s what our entire economy needs in order to flourish, now and in the future.”
Under the Liberals, Wynne said the province has embarked on its largest infrastructure investment in history, totalling $160 billion over 12 years.
The projects include the Eglinton Crosstown line, on which tunnelling is now complete, similar light-rail transit lines on Finch Ave., in Hamilton and Waterloo and electrified GO Transit lines, to name a few.
She took a thinly veiled shot at Brown’s recent vague promise to put a price on carbon, saying that alone won’t solve climate change.
“If it did, Canada’s emissions would have fallen two years ago, when gas cost about 35 cents per litre more than it does today.”
Wynne’s speech came against the backdrop of revelations in the Star that cabinet ministers have secret targets of up to $500,000 apiece they are expected to raise every year to build the party’s war chest for the 2018 campaign. On Tuesday, Wynne promised major changes before the end of the year. Critics have long been con- cerned that fundraising leaves politicians prone to the influence of big donors looking for favours.
The federal government banned corporate and union donations a decade ago, and capped individual donations at $1,525 to parties and another $1,525 to ridings or candidates.
Ontario’s system now has a donor cap of $9,975 that’s routinely exceeded through loopholes in the legislation that permit multiple donations.
Corporations, unions and individuals can contribute far more than their yearly cap by giving additional cash during byelections and by funding candidates during party leadership campaigns, among other things.