Last week The Globe and Mail did several stories on Premier Christy Clark and her private fundraising dinners.
These are the events where folks pay $10,000 or more to break bread and get up close and personal with our premier.
Now, perhaps, we’ve become inured to the ways of government, but we almost shrugged and said, “So tell us something that would surprise us.”
The Liberals represent business, and business understands that you have to pay for everything. Paying for a chance to whisper in the Premier’s ear seems to be par for the course.
Businesses hire lobbyists and those lobbyists (usually former politicians) also understand that lobbying means making your case again and again. Businesses and organizations donate to political parties to remind those parties that they not only have a stake in the government’s policies, but that the government has a stake in the businesses’ and organizations that pay taxes.
And, to be clear, the NDP does not have clean hands in this type of fundraising either.
NDP leader John Horgan says he attends his own
fundraisers – a recent one being a $2,000-a-plate event with 30 individuals.
Under the current disclosure legislation neither party has to say what individuals were at which fundraising dinners. Those donations are lumped in with the other disclosures.
Critics have said this allows people to secretly gain exclusive access to the Premier. Well, yes, it does. But, honestly, do we really think the Premier is not aware of who are the very large donors to her and her party? Do we think the folks who turn up for the dinners aren’t already on her “best friends” list? And do we, as the media, think those big donors have more influence over a cocktail than they do writing a big fat cheque and making a phone call afterwards? Most of the time these fundraisers are a way of making the donors feel like they’re important folks posing with the premier for a photo they can put on their office desk.
It’s true, we always want to know more details. And we’re always for more transparency everywhere. And, yes, we think the new bill that would disclose dinner donor names would be interesting and much-appreciated grist for more stories.
But who are we fooling to suggest that disclosing who’s willing to pay big bucks to nosh with Clark or Horgan will reveal much more than we already know.
