Conservatives selling access to the Finance Minister?

While the Conservatives were throwing mud at the Liberals over their fundraising practices, the Liberals and NDP were throwing a little mud themselves at the Tories. The Tories last night held a fundraiser for their candidate in Ottawa Centre. Here’s the pitch (I have put some parts in bold as they’d be the key things to zero in on here):

Friends and Colleagues:

I have the honour and pleasure of hosting a small Reception and Dinner with the Honourable Jim Flaherty, M.P. on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 from 6-8 pm at the Rideau Club. [Ed note: The Ottawa Rideau Club is a swanky private club that costs thousands to join and counts many of the country’s movers and shakers among its members. ]

Minister Flaherty has generously given us his time to discuss directly the Government’s outlook on our economy, its plans for our financial future and the fiscal direction the Government will be taking over the course of its mandate.  As you are aware, this is a very busy time for the Minister as Budget Day approaches so his offer to join with us is even that much more appreciated.   

As you are aware, we are constantly facing the possibility of a general election in a minority government.  It is imperative we prepare for this election immediately and to accomplish that,     I need your financial support. Your attendance at this event will help us achieve our financial targets for the next campaign.  

I look forward to seeing you at the Jim Flaherty event and hearing from you over the course of the next few days. Thank you, in advance, for your support.

Sincerely,

Brian McGarry

Conservative Party of Canada

Candidate – Ottawa Centre

O  YES, I WILL ATTEND THE MINISTER FLAHERTY RECEPTION AND DINNER 

Please call Michael McNeil to reserve your ticket(s) @ $500.00 each.

I asked Minister Flaherty on his way into the House if the Conservatives were, in fact, “selling access” to him, something the Conservatives in opposition often criticized the Liberals for doing with their Laurier Club events. Flaherty said that such a suggestion was “complete nonsense” and that he does hundreds of these a year.

Still, the promo pitch did promise those who ponied up $500 the chance to hear from the guy who is working ont the federal budget, “the Government’s outlook on our economy [and] its plans for our financial future” so we asked the NDP’s Pat Martin what he thought about it:

“Well so much for taking big money out of politics.  I thought the whole idea was you weren't supposed to be able to buy access just because you had a big enough bank roll.  I mean that's good old fashioned tollgating and I find them both offensive.  SO you've got both the Liberals and the Tories in the weeks leading to a federal election campaign violating both the spirit and the letter of the law in terms of election financing.”

Liberal finance critic John McCallum was pretty critical, too:

Well I think the idea that a Finance Minister just 10 days or so before his budget should ask people to come and listen to his views on his own budget for $500 a person, I think that is highly inappropriate because essentially what he's doing is selling access.  And we don't know what he said, we don't know what they said, but clearly the people paying $500 a person, why don't they get a little bit of tidbit, of inside information from the Finance Minister himself.  So I think it was entirely inappropriate.

And finally, Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre and I had a discussion about this:

AKIN:   So now you have some objections with the Liberal fundraiser tonight.

POILIEVRE:  That's right.

AKIN:   Can you explain why?

POILIEVRE:  Well, the idea that politicians could auction themselves off, that is allow people to pay them for the privilege of eating in their company or playing tennis together really means that all the politicians in this place are for sale.

AKIN:   Last night you auctioned off Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister, in the Rideau Club, access to the Finance Minister two weeks before —

POILIEVRE:  How much?

AKIN:   Five hundred bucks.

POILIEVRE:  That's right and that's —

AKIN:  You could only get in if you paid 500 bucks.  Isn't that selling access?

POILIEVRE:  That's under the thousand — the $1,100 donation limit in the law.

AKIN:  Politicians still for sale.

POILIEVRE:  Under —

AKIN:   Still for sale. Finance Minister!

POILIEVRE:  Whenever you're ready for me to answer, I'm ready to go.

AKIN:   Go ahead.

POILIEVRE:  I'm very proud that Jim Flaherty held a fundraiser that followed the law.  The Liberal Party did not follow the law with its fundraiser.  That is the difference.  We follow the law.  They're breaking the law.

AKIN:   But doesn’t it violate the spirit of the Accountability Act?  You've been on about the spirit of the Act and here Jim Flaherty is selling access.  That's breaking the spirit.  You're selling access to, of all people, the Finance Minister two weeks before the budget.

POILIEVRE:  You are the finance journalist for CTV, right?

AKIN::   Mm hm. 

POILIEVRE:  Is 1,100 bigger than 500?

AKIN:   Yeah, sure.

POILIEVRE:  Okay, that's right.  So he's six hundred dollars —

AKIN:   I can't afford either!

POILIEVRE:  — less than the limit.  And Jim Flaherty has held a perfectly legal fundraiser, the kind of which is permitted under the law and no one contests that.  However, Liberals have said they will take corporate money, lobbyists' money.  They will take any kind of money and as much as you want to give.  And they're prepared to keep it a secret.  That's what their fundraiser tonight pledges to do.  It's a violation of the law.  They should cancel the fundraiser altogether, apologize and explain to the Chief Elector Officer what it is they were trying to get away with here.