Money talks in politics

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2016 (2916 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — B.C. Premier Christy Clark is the latest politician forced to explain the ethics behind accepting cash for access.

Clark has been on the hot seat for days after it was publicly revealed she receives between $30,000 and $50,000 a year from the B.C. Liberal party’s coffers as payment for attending events including fundraisers. Some of those events are swanky, only-get-in-if-you-have-the-cash private affairs. So not only are people getting access to the highest office in the province by writing a big cheque, the premier herself is essentially getting paid extra for attending those events.

In one example, individuals paid $10,000 each for the privilege of attending a private event with Clark at the home of the chancellor of Simon Fraser University.

The only thing odd about the NDP’s ethics complaint about the practice is that it took so long to be filed, since the Liberals readily admit they have been doing this for more than two decades.

Clark defended the practice saying she knows she has to separate her “public duties from any sources of funding for political parties.”

“I always keep that utmost in my mind when we’re making decisions,” she said.

Well, OK then, as long as she pinky-swears not to let those people who paid money influence her, then everything is A-OK.

In the United States, where political-party financing dwarfs anything seen in Canada, money is everything. That country can’t even get a majority of politicians to address lax gun laws even when more than 30 toddlers managed to find a gun and shoot themselves last year. Why? Because the National Rifle Association gives so much money to congressional candidates, its influence is impenetrable.

Money talks, even if Christy Clark wants to pretend she can ignore it.

If Clark sold $10,000 tickets to meet with her in the premier’s office, the outrage would be swift. How is it different when those meetings take place in a private residence?

Clark, of course, is not the only politician in this position. Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has offered feeble excuses for attending a $500-a-head, invitation-only fundraiser in Toronto earlier this month with a bunch of lawyers. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne is muttering the sounds of the converted about cracking down on party fundraising rules after her party was put on the hot seat for ministers holding fundraising events with stakeholders in their own departments.

Like Clark, Wynne tried to suggest just because you’re a cabinet minister getting an earful from someone who is looking for something from your office doesn’t mean the policies of her government are influenced by party donors.

Wilson-Raybould’s defence was no less cringe-worthy, with her trying to suggest she was only there as the MP for Vancouver Granville, not as the justice minister, her policy adviser who attended with her was just there on her own dime to have a good time and they were only talking to the lawyers about “Canadian politics, being involved in politics and ensuring that everybody has the ability to have their views heard.”

Yeah, well, having your views heard is still a lot easier when you have the cash.

Manitoba can sit a little bit smugly in all of this, being among the provinces with the strictest limits on political fundraising. Only Quebec has stricter dollar limits on donations to political parties and candidates, and Manitoba is one of just four provinces that don’t allow any donations from corporations or unions.

But that doesn’t actually stop the kind of pay-to-play ,meet-and-greet events we’ve seen in other provinces. It may be on a smaller scale, but it happens in Manitoba as well. One of the NDP’s biggest fundraising events each year was the annual premier’s dinner, where people bought tickets to mingle with cabinet ministers and the premier.

There is nothing stopping the new government from holding fundraising meet-and-greets in someone’s living room. The only difference would be the maximum donation could be $3,000, rather than $10,000.

That’s still far out of reach of the vast majority of Manitobans.

Mia Rabson is the Free Press parliamentary bureau chief.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca