Shortly after her speech at a $1,600-a-plate fundraising dinner, Premier Kathleen Wynne said Ontario’s political donation system will look a lot more like the federal government’s version come next election.
“I don’t know whether it will be exactly what the federal rules are but we will move in that direction,” said Wynne on Wednesday evening. “And you’ll see movement before the next election.”
The federal fundraising rules ban corporate and union donations, while capping personal donations at a much lower level than Ontario currently allows. (For example, the maximum annual contribution to a federal party is $1,525, while Ontario allows $9,975 annually to a party.)
The premier’s remarks followed her keynote speech to the Ontario Liberal Party’s 20th annual heritage dinner – and a few days after the Toronto Star revealed Liberal cabinet ministers have annual fundraising targets that reach as high as $500,000.
The heritage dinner is a massive fundraising event for the Liberals, with approximately 1,500 people expected to have been in attendance for the 2016 edition. The party was anticipating approximately $2.5 million in donations from the $1,600-a-plate evening.
Wynne’s speech to her fellow Liberals at the dinner mainly touched on her government’s current plans for infrastructure, post-secondary education and combating climate change. Wynne later made it clear that events like the heritage dinner won’t completely disappear – parties still need to raise money, she said - they’ll just be different.
“As we transition away from corporate and union donations and move to more of the system that the federal government has in the place, the kinds of fundraising events will change, the kinds of initiatives will change,” said Wynne.
Under grilling from reporters, Wynne stressed that most of the details are still to be decided – but reiterated that any reforms will be brought forward in the fall. She did, however, give a pretty strong indication of where the government’s head is at.
“Certainly the federal model is the one that we have looked to,” Wynne noted. “It’s the one that we have held out as the one that makes the most sense to us.”
To contact the reporter on this story: 
gzochodne@qpbriefing.com 
905-926-8026 
Twitter: @<a href="www.twitter.com/geoffzochodne" target="_blank">geoffzochodne</a>

Province to move towards more federal-style political fundraising, Wynne says

Read this for free.