Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Dec. 12, 2016Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Cash for access.
The phrase suggests corruption, and mischief. It conjures up images of politicians taking cash from lobbyists in dark alleys in exchange for illicit favours.
Rona Ambrose, Conservative interim leader, has fed that perception by attacking Liberal Party fundraisers as "hidden and … secretive" events where rich donors get to cozy up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other cabinet ministers.
The reality isn't quite so sinister.
Billing these events as opportunities to "dialogue" with the government – as some Liberal fundraisers have – is certainly unsavoury. And it's disturbing that organizers of at least one Trudeau event reportedly tried to sell tickets for as much as $5,000 apiece, an amount that exceeds the annual party donation limit of $1,525. There may also be a handful of lobbyists who have run afoul of the federal Lobbyists' Code of Conduct for taking part in these events.
And, yes, the federal Liberals are hypocrites for flouting their own ethics guidelines, which say ministers should avoid even the appearance of giving "preferential access" to party donors.
But Canadians should take a deep breath. We're not talking about a system that's inherently corrupt. Canadians should be thankful the country's political finance system hasn't gone the way of the Wild West of political fundraising that prevails in the United States.
Forget the perception of preferential access. In the United States, big money and special interests dominate the political landscape.
A payment of $1,525 would barely buy a steak dinner for a few friends in Washington, D.C., let alone admission into a political system. Pay to play is tallied in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Canadians gave a total of $74.5-million to federal parties, leaders, candidates and riding associations in 2011– the last election year for which there is complete Elections Canada data. Canadians contributed $74-million alone directly to federal parties in 2015, also an election year.
Compare that with the United States, where Americans contributed a total of $3-billion (U.S.) to Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in the leadup to last month's election. This was done directly and via roughly 4,000 political action committees, which are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money from individual donors. Hillary Clinton alone raised $1.4-billion, including PAC money. These figures exclude the billions more that went to fund House and Senate races. In 2012, a total of $6.3-billion was spent on the presidential and Congressional races.
Even allowing for the 10-times multiple to reflect the larger U.S. economy, Canada is in the minor leagues of campaign finance.
But it's not just the scale of the cash, it's what the money can get you. In the United States, the big money from businesses and wealthy individuals flows to politicians who are in the best position to make things happen. That puts phenomenal money-raising clout in the hands of Congressional leaders and committee chairs, who have a lot of say over regulation, policy and taxes. Committees have enormous influence over the industries they oversee, from agribusiness to financial services. And because Congressional leaders control fundraising, they can dictate the political fates of more junior members of Congress.
Members of the House of Representatives face re-election every two years, forcing them to be full-time telemarketers because they must constantly raise money for the next campaign. Securing big donors is the key to electoral success and longevity. As a result, members of Congress get 70 per cent of their money from large donors and PACs.
If there is undue influence by special interests in Canadian politics, it exists because a clutch of large companies and highly concentrated industries have outsized economic clout. Think of protected and heavily regulated industries with few players (banks and telecoms) or individual companies that dominate their businesses (Bombardier or BCE). Builders and real estate developers play a similar role at the municipal level.
Canada is a relatively small country, where key industries and companies have shown a knack for getting what they want from governments.
They don't need to buy $1,500 tickets to fundraisers to get their way.