Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said the Liberal Party’s fundraising events meet all the rules. Canadians should read the rules and judge for themselves.

The Liberal Party continues to set up exclusive social events for stakeholders and billionaires where, for a donation, they can meet the Prime Minister and other Ministers.

Yet, if you search for Annex B of the government’s “Open and Accountable” Guide for Ministers, you’ll see the plain words: “there should be no preferential access” to Cabinet Ministers. Pretty clear.

Rules mean something when they are enforced. But, rather than assign an independent officer like the Ethics Commissioner to enforce them, Trudeau assigned the Privy Council Office. The PCO reports to none other than the Prime Minister himself.

Trudeau has made what might be a fateful choice. He seems to have decided a rich Liberal Party is more important that his own reputation.

Perhaps he believes shielding himself behind his House Leader, Bardish Chagger, is a solution. She’s far more skilled at repeating talking points in Question Period. But she doesn’t run the PCO or the Liberal Party. The questions are for him – and about him.

Already, one billionaire guest gave $200,000 to the Trudeau Foundation and $50,000 toward a statue of Pierre Trudeau. That doesn’t smell right.

A land developer attended an event though the Liberals had appointed him to the Halifax Port Authority. Another rich contributor later got his bank approved. A wealthy investor said he pitched the Prime Minister about foreign investment in seniors’ care and real estate.

Unless Trudeau stops his pay-for-access events, the questions will keep coming. And at some point, his fundraising scheme might touch his privatization plans.

That’s what’s happened to his provincial ally Kathleen Wynne. And in two years, she went from “the social justice Premier” to 14% approval.

At a single event with Premier Wynne, billed as an “appreciation of the transaction” event, the Ontario Liberals raised $165,000 from 24 bankers, lawyers and others working to privatize Hydro One, the public company that runs Ontario’s electricity grid.

Each guest paid $7,500. And they had reason to be appreciative – Wynne’s decision to privatize Hydro One paid out $75 million in legal and banking fees.

A lawsuit recently filed by the Canadian Union of Public Employees paints a disturbing picture. Their claim alleges the Hydro One privatization “was approved and conducted…to curry favour with an elite class of financial institutions, law firms and investors who stood to benefit from the sale.” The purpose of privatization was to encourage “future support for and financial contributions to the Ontario Liberal Party” from the lawyers, bankers and others who benefitted from the deal. Yow.

It’s a disturbing thought – that a democratic government would sell-off a prime public asset, not because they believed it was a good policy, but because it was a good party fundraising opportunity. That’s dark.

Now Trudeau – like Wynne, who had no electoral mandate for the hydro sale – is also heading toward asset sell-offs. He’s discarded his promise to use historically low interest rates to finance infrastructure and adopted a private investor plan. He’s tasked two investment banks with studying privatization of airports and sea ports.

Trudeau can end this mess before it gets worse. Today, it’s accusations of selling access to Ministers to benefit the Liberal Party. Accusations of selling Canada to benefit the Liberal Party would be far more damaging.

Tom Parkin is a former NDP staffer and social democrat media commentator