A week later Cohn wrote another article in which he speculated that the Ontario NDP is attempting to complicate political fundraising reforms because the party is in debt, and wants to use the current corrupt system of political fundraising to pull itself out while there is still time.

Of course, hearing this from a paper with a Liberal bent like the Toronto Star, and especially hearing this from Cohn — who has been far from a friend to the Ontario NDP — might lead grassroots New Democrats, like myself, to doubt his speculation. That’s precisely why I am speaking out: I think that Cohn’s suspicion has been confirmed by some of the things I have heard recently from the party, including remarks made by Andrea Horwath herself.

Party debts and hedged bets

Shortly before Cohn’s articles appeared in the Star, I was tasked by the Ottawa-Vanier NDP riding association to attend a wine and cheese event with Horwath and to ask her about issues that are important to the riding. Our conversation was perfectly pleasant.

While addressing the group in attendance, Horwath condemned the scandalous fundraising efforts of the Ontario Liberal party. Rightly so. She went on to assert, however, that the Liberals’ attempts to change the system are unfair, because they have used the current system to put themselves in a healthy financial position while the opposition parties are still in debt.

Therefore, she suggested, the Ontario NDP will be doing their best to exploit this system while they still can, before the inequality between the Ontario NDP’s and the Ontario Liberals’ finances are “locked in.”

I was caught off guard by this rationale, but I comforted myself by thinking that this meant the Ontario NDP would be approaching unions and small businesses for money before any reforms took effect, which is something I have no problem with. But this comforting illusion did not last.

Shortly thereafter, in discussion with other New Democrats, including a higher-up in the party, the subject was again broached. This time it was explicitly suggested that the Ontario NDP was seeking to elicit donations from large corporations that are willing to give to the party in order to “hedge their bets” before any reforms are implemented.

My morale was further lowered after reading an article by Adrian Morrow in the Globe and Mail just a few weeks ago that reported on an impending cash-for-access fundraiser targeting “stakeholders” (i.e., corporations and unions) where donors “willing to pay nearly $10,000 can buy access to Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath at a ‘private reception.’”

Of course, this is exactly what Horwath had criticized the premier for doing, a fact that did not escape Morrow: “Asked if it was hypocritical of her to bash the government for taking part in private fundraisers while doing the same herself, she said, ‘Absolutely not, absolutely not,’ but did not explain her reasoning.”

Inspiring leadership, not corporate donors

“We’ve been clear that it’s time to get the influence of big money out of government and politics in Ontario,” Horwath said in a statement from the party last month.

Unfortunately, she has not been clear at all. Her actions and words suggest that now is not the time to get the influence of big money out of politics in Ontario, at least not before she gets some more big money into politics first. Apparently Horwath has decided to take advantage of a corrupt system while she still can. As a party member, I find this behaviour particularly worrying because it will undoubtedly have an effect on the party’s platform —if it didn’t, then why would corporations bother to donate?

After reviewing the list of Ontario’s top 30 political donors and to whom they donated, which was recently revealed by the CBC’s Mike Crawley, I am starting to wonder if some of the corroding effects of corporate money on our party are not already visible. Is it a coincidence that the Ontario NDP has taken money from the Insurance Bureau of Canada and that public auto insurance is no longer an issue at campaign time? Is it a coincidence that the Ontario NDP has taken money from the Federation of Rental-Housing Providers of Ontario and that public housing is no longer a campaign issue? Is it a coincidence that the party ran on a right-wing platform in 2014 given this behaviour? Maybe it is, but maybe it isn’t, and that’s troubling.

Someone ought to point out to Andrea Horwath that fundraising records were broken south of the border by Bernie Sanders without the help of corporate donors. Instead, he relied on millions of small individual donations (and money from the nurses’ union), which allowed him to outdo the fundraising of his opponent, who relied heavily on the corrupt fundraising system.

Inspiring and principled left leadership is quite possibly the best fundraising tool there is. We should use it. We should also push for the political fundraising reforms the Ontario Liberals are talking about, despite the Liberal party’s endless hypocrisy and the problematic blind spots in the reforms. We certainly should not be putting these reforms at risk by pushing to give those who stand to lose from these reforms — conservative union leaders and big business — a seat at the table.

I can’t help but conclude that the Ontario NDP’s integrity is being compromised under the leadership of Andrea Horwath. The grassroots should not stand for it. This means that the mandatory leadership review coming up at the next convention ought to be a live question. New Democrats ought to be pushing for renewal at the provincial level just as they have at the federal level. How will we ever be able to build the kind of society we want if we do not?

Miles Krauter is a former Ontario NDP candidate and former president and executive member of multiple federal and provincial NDP ridings. He is a labour activist and community organizer in Ottawa working on the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign. His writing has appeared online at rabble.ca, Ricochet, and Canadian Dimension.