Premier Christy Clark and some of her cabinet ministers are gathering at Mission Hill Winery for a dinner party fundraiser — at $5,000 a plate.
Critics say bending the premier’s ear for cash equates to bribery and that it’s time to do away with paying for the privileged to break bread with politicians.
“When politicians are selling access to themselves for cash, it’s like having a referee for a sports game taking money from one of the team’s players and politicians are referees in the public’s interest so it’s very dangerous for them to be bought off behind closed doors by players on one of the teams,” Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch said.
The provincial NDP also charges patrons to dine with its leader, but the party says it wants to get rid of corporate and union donations altogether.
“We would like to change it. We don’t think these high priced dinners are the way that makes out democratic process, a health process. And so it would be such a pleasure to get into government and ban it and look at simply individual donations,” Lana Podham of the BC NDP said.