Wynne will review fundraising reforms
Premier steps up efforts to tackle murky role of money days after Star investigation
Premier Kathleen Wynne will meet with Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath this week to discuss political fundraising reforms in the wake of a Star probe.
Days after the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn revealed Liberal cabinet ministers have secret annual fundraising targets of up to $500,000 each, Wynne stepped up efforts to finally tackle the murky role of money in Ontario politics.
“My government remains committed to enhancing the integrity of the election finance system and protecting the public interest,” the premier wrote Brown and Horwath on Sunday.
“With this in mind, I invite you to join me for a meeting within the next few days to discuss these important issues in more detail,” she said of changes the Liberals plan to introduce this fall.
“After we meet, and once you are able to consult within your parties, I am very interested to receive your formal input on a responsible way forward to reform the current system, including your ideas on legislative and non-legislative mechanisms we could use to develop recommendations to assist us in making these important reforms.”
Wynne said she is “committed to phasing out corporate and union donations to political parties and reducing the amount that individuals can donate.”
That would lower the $9,975 annual cap on contributions and close the loopholes that allow donors to give exponentially more than that during by-elections and party leadership campaigns.
At the same time, the Liberals plan to ban third-party advertising — usually seen in the form of attack ads against the Tories bankrolled by la- bour unions, which benefit the Grits and the NDP during provincial elections.
Brown said Sunday that “of course I am looking forward to meeting with Premier Wynne and Ms. Horwath.”
“However, as I stated in my letter to the premier on Friday, we hope she’ll agree to strike a select committee with equal representation from all parties, where all deputations and consultations are made in public and not behind closed doors,” said the Tory leader.
As a former Conservative MP, he noted the federal fundraising reforms of a decade ago levelled the playing field during elections and “assured Canadians that the democratic process remained fair, balanced and devoid of undue influence.”
Horwath said in a statement on Sunday that she and her colleagues “are looking forward to the meeting and are hopeful we can begin mapping out a process that engages all political parties and broader civil society.”
“It is time to put an end to the undue influence of big money in Ontario,” the NDP leader said.
“The question now becomes how are we going to finance our democratic process? A question that fundamental to our democracy cannot be left in the hands of any single political party or any group of parties.”
Last Thursday, Horwath asked Wynne to “seek and obtain widespread consensus beyond the governing party and, indeed, beyond the parties themselves” as changes are devised.
For his part, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner says that he also wants to outlaw corporate and union donations.