If Trudeau can’t be trusted with donation dollars, who can?

All the outrage about fundraising practices and habits will likely result in yet more burdensome restrictions being placed on donations and this trend will likely continue until at last we reach the day when voluntary contributions to political parties are totally banned.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured in this file photo on the Hill. All the rules put in place to restrict political contributions don’t make fundraising impossible, but they do make it much more difficult, which means party fundraisers have to be extra inventive when it comes to garnering donations. This explains the Liberal Party’s 'pay-for-access' scheme and it also explains why parties are doing more grassroots-style fundraising, writes Gerry Nicholls. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

Opinion

BY GERRY NICHOLLS

November 7, 2016

OAKVILLE, ONT.—Political fundraising in this country has a really bad reputation. How bad? Well, even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—the popular, dewy-eyed idealist with a charming “Sunny Ways” attitude and an adorable “I-do-politics-differently” mantra—is not above cynical suspicion ...

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