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This is a departure from previous Liberal explanations for the presence of ministers of the Crown at partisan fundraisers: that no law was broken, or that federal rules on political financing are the strictest in the country, or at any rate that should anyone be so gauche as to bring up government business at such an event, they are instantly set upon by strong men and bundled from the room. Or to more exactly quote the party’s former national director, they are “immediately directed to instead make an appointment with the relevant office.”

That explanation would now appear to be, as they say, inoperative. The prime minister’s version of events, as elucidated further in his year-end press conference, is rather that attendees do indeed discuss government business with him, but that this should raise no concerns because a) he talks with people even when they don’t give him money (“I and my entire government make ourselves extremely available to Canadians through a broad range of venues”), b) their contributions to the party have no influence on his thinking (“the decisions I take in government are ones based on what is right for Canadians”), not to mention this latest addition, c) he doesn’t even discuss with them what they are discussing with him. At all times, in all situations, they are simply discussing the middle class.

Now, none of these points remotely addresses the very clear principle laid down in the prime minister’s own instructions to ministers, which was not merely that “there should be no preferential access to government” given to contributors to the party, but that there should not even be the “appearance of preferential access.” The prime minister’s defence of his conduct would seem to be that how something appears to others is a matter of his own internal state of mind: if he himself does not believe there has been an exchange of preferential access for contributions to the Liberal party, neither will anyone else.