Angry in the Great White North

The Liberal Party is pimping out politicians:

Liberals are urging corporations to "bid as high as they want" at a party fundraiser tonight for a round of golf with former prime minister Paul Martin, an outing with Ken Dryden to an NHL game, or a tennis match with Bob Rae and his brother John.

The Conservatives, who banned corporate political donations and capped individual donations at $1,100 a year, pounced yesterday on what they called a clear violation of the fundraising rules.

The Tories wrote yesterday to the Commissioner of Elections Canada, demanding an investigation before the next election campaign.

"This event raises serious questions surrounding the legality of the fundraising practices of the Liberal Party of Canada," writes Tory MP Pierre Poilievre, who helped guide the government's Federal Accountability Act through the House of Commons in 2006.

The Liberal plan turns on the notion that the portion of a payment above fair market value paid to a political party for something of value must be treated as a donation.

Since this is an auction, by definition the price reached is fair market value, leaving no excess, and keeping the entire cost out of the reach of donation laws.

It's actually rather clever.

It is also clearly duplicitous.

I find it interesting that Belinda Stronach and Ruby Dhalla are not being doled out as prizes for the highest bidder.  Based on the letter published by Stephen Taylor, the prizes consist of time with male Liberals only.  I suppose handing out women as companions for a period of time in return for cash would bring to clear focus the fact that the Liberal Party is acting like an escort service.

But besides attempting to hide the crappy optics behind offering only older male Liberal Party luminaries as prizes, there is a problem with this scheme:

Elizabeth Whiting, a Liberal Party spokeswoman, argued that if a corporation pays "fair market value" for an auction prize, it is not a political donation and does not have to be made public. Ms. Whiting said that because it is impossible to know exactly what the price would be to spend time with Liberal politicians, "fair market value" is whatever an individual - or corporation - is willing to spend.

"Corporate donations are illegal, but because a bid on an auction of a unique value is not considered a donation, it's not illegal," she said.

But where does the money go? "To the Liberal Party," she explained.

Now here's the problem.  I have a prize to auction off.  Where did I get the prize? 

Let's say the prize was a cruise.  What was the cost of the cruise to me? 

If I bought the prize with the intention of auctioning it off, then I spent money.  That was the fair market value.  The price I get at auction (above that fair market value) is the donation I must declare to Elections Canada.

If the cruise was a donation from a party supporter, I would not be out of pocket, but I would have to declare the cost of the cruise as a donation when I received it, and thus the cruise could only be worth $1,100 or less in order to be a legal donation (the upper limit would be lower if the donor had already donated to the party).  That cost would be the fair market value, and again the difference between that and the winning auction bid would be declared as a second donation.

But in this case, I'm auctioning off face time with politicians.  With the cruise, money going to the party from the auction was balanced against the cost incurred by the party (or by the donor) for the cruise in the first place.  That initial cost for the cruise will help keep the auction honest, and in any case, creates a way to identify the point at which the auction price exceeds the legal donation levels.  The winner of the auction has to be an individual, and the sum of his previous donations this year with difference between the auction price and the prize value cannot exceed $1,100.

The Liberals are arguing that face time, though, has no intrinsic cost to the party.  How do you cost the presence of Bob Rae?

Guess what?  You can't.  That's why we have these donation rules in the first place.  You aren't allowed to spend money to gain access to politicians.  If you do want to meet with politicians, you have to register as a lobbyist and describe in detail who is paying your lobbying bills.

We are fixated on keeping politicians, and by extension, our political parties, isolated from the flow of money outside of the political system.  Only the thinnest trickle of cash, in $1,100 dollops per year per person, can cross the boundary, and only individuals can bring that money to a political party.

Sometimes I think we're far too sensitive to the nickels and dimes, but the fundamental principle at play is that money cannot be a factor in garnering time and favour from politicians.

What the Liberals are doing flies in the face of that idea.  The Liberal Party is selling face time with its most senior leaders.  That money is going to the Liberal Party.  Corporations can spend the money.  Bidders are encouraged to bid in excess of the $1,100 limit.

Is one auction going to be the end of Canadian democracy?  No, but who says there will be one auction?  If the Liberals get away with it, any party can do it.  Imagine a weekly catalog listing current bids for lunch for different politicians. 

Is an eBay listing of Canadian politicians just around the corner?

What happens when the more attractive female politicians start demanding a higher price on the auction block?  At some point, someone is going to make some uncomfortable suggestion about what factors are at play.

The Liberal Party must be desperate to be pulling this stunt.