Let's Put an End to Developer, Union and Corporate Donations in Newmarket Municipal Elections

I am glad to see that Kathleen Wynne is taking a long hard look at the effect of corporate, developer, and union donations on campaign financing.

Provincially, the Premier has established fundraising targets for her Ministers, as reported in the Toronto Star. Ministers in Wynne's cabinet are each expected to raise several hundreds of thousands each year. As a result, the opposition parties are raising many examples of corporate donors to the Liberal Party of Ontario subsequently receiving lucrative government contracts.

Things have come to a boil after a $2.5 million "Heritage" fundraising dinner last week when the public outrage over selling access to Ontario Government Ministers received much coverage in the media.

On Monday afternoon, the Ontario Government released a discussion paper meant to provoke a conversation on municipal election campaign financing. What the government is proposing is to allow municipalities to follow the lead from federal election rules and ban donations from developers, unions and corporate donors. Wynne is expected to propose the same for the province.

In the 2014 municipal election, the biggest fundraiser in Newmarket was the controversial Regional Councillor, John Taylor. He held a July 2014 fundraiser selling tickets for $750 apiece that generated $24,000 in income for his campaign.

He had 42 corporations donating between $500 and $750 - the maximum donation - either in cash or product/service in kind. This generated $30,350. In addition, because the law allows this as a loophole to get around maximum donation limits, business owners who may have also donated corporately, personally gave him another $6,000.

All of this money went towards funding his election campaign income of $57,737.18. Miraculously, he spent the exact same amount of money - right down to the penny - on his campaign, so there was neither a deficit nor a surplus.

I think it's highly unlikely that someone like John Taylor will follow Kathleen Wynne's lead on prohibiting campaign donations from corporations, unions and developers in a Newmarket election. And because the new provincial legislation will make it optional for municipalities to adopt these new rules, don't expect to see Newmarket follow suit as long as Taylor is in office. Without their money, he wouldn't be able to fund his re-election campaign.

And that's why Kathleen Wynne should make these rules mandatory - not optional.

That said, imagine a Newmarket and York Regional government that focused on the issues that matter to residents, as opposed to the special interests of corporations, unions, and developers.