‘It just makes people cynical:’ Green leader pans NDP $500-a-head golf fundraiser

The leader of the BC Green Party says he’s “disappointed” in Premier John Horgan over a reported $500-a-head fundraiser.

The event, first reported in the Times Colonist, is slated for August 24 at the Bear Mountian Resort and billed as the “Leader’s Golf Tournament,” featuring Horgan and Education Minister Rob Fleming.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Horgan said the event has been a party fixture for a decade, and that “this will be probably the last one.”

LISTEN: Andrew Weaver joins CKNW’s Simi Sara to talk about the NDP fundraiser

But Weaver, speaking on CKNW’s The Simi Sara Show, said now that the NDP is in power, they should put their money where their mouth is when it comes to political donations.

“For 10 years they’re in opposition, this was not the premier of the province and this was not the Minister of Education,” he said.

“It’s important to model the behaviour you expect in others, and what an opportunity to actually show the leadership that you expect now. They’re going to raise maybe $20,000, but in the big picture it just makes people cynical.”

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Weaver said he’s willing to give the NDP the benefit of the doubt that the event was scheduled in advance and overlooked.

But he said cancelling it would be the right thing to do.

LISTEN: CKNW’s Jeremy Lye asks Premier John Horgan about the NDP golf fundraiser

Weaver said despite disapproving of the event, his party maintains a good working relationship with the NDP, and is being consulted on forthcoming legislation.

Horgan, for his part, is sticking to the party’s position that fundraising under the current system is legal, but that the rules will be changed when the legislature reconvenes in September.

“The first order of business of the new government — after the Supremacy of Parliament, I think, is Bill one if I’m not mistaken — I suspect Bill two will be to ban union and corporate donations.”

However, Horgan is ruling out making any such legislation retroactive to election day as the Alberta NDP did.

– With files from Jeremy Lye