With less than six months to go before Ontarians head to the polls, alarms are being raised over whether the province’s new campaign finance rules have succeeded in getting big money out of politics.

The tighter laws came into force in January with an eye to bringing more transparency and accountability to political fundraising after criticism in the press and public over so-called cash-for-access fundraisers.

Among other things, union and corporate donations are outlawed and individual donations to a party are capped at $1,200 a year, down from $9,975. (People can also donate $1,200 each to a candidate in an election period, and to riding associations and nomination contestants in a year.)

For the first nine months under the new rules, a significant chunk of donations to the governing Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives came from a small group of donors giving $1,000 or more, according to Democracy Watch, a national advocacy organization.

Co-founder Duff Conacher said that’s “undemocratic” and a lot more than the average voter can afford. He contends wealthier contributors could still try to influence politicians at Queen’s Park.

“A democratic system would not allow anyone to donate more than what the average person can afford to donate,” he said.

According to Democracy Watch, the Liberals came in last of the major parties and raised $420,133 between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 of this year from 1,501 donors. Nearly 29 per cent of that was donated by 103 people, or 6.8 per cent of donors, who gave at least $1,000.

The PCs far outpaced the Liberals and received more than $1.39 million from 4,151 donors over the same time period. Almost 33 per cent of the pot came from 391 people, or 9.4 per cent of contributors, donating $1,000-plus.

“Those are big impact donations,” Conacher said.

New Democrats bucked the trend somewhat. The party had raised $647,763 from 4,299 people, with only 22 people, or 0.5 per cent, donating more than $1,000 and accounting for 3.8 per cent of the total amount raised over those nine months.

It’s important to note that Elections Ontario has not yet audited political contributions and that parties have 10 days to disclose donations. Elections Ontario then posts that to its website in real time.

The most recent figures available from Elections Ontario show that as of Nov. 28, the PCs locked in more than $2 million and the NDP about $914,350. As of Dec. 12, the Liberals had brought in over $1 million.

Conacher wants the individual donations capped at $100, which is what it is in Quebec. The limit there was lowered from $1,000 to prevent corruption and address “straw man” donations from private companies.

Conacher warned such donations could occur in Ontario — for instance, a corporation could use its employees to funnel contributions to parties. He said Elections Ontario should be auditing specifically for that possibility.

Some experts are less concerned about the limits and more concerned with the potential for straw man-esque donations.

Canada’s former chief electoral officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley, who gave input on Ontario’s revamped election finances act, said a $1,200 donation is a “reasonable amount.”

“A $1,200-donation does not buy you strong access necessarily. (Parties) need a lot more than that to run a campaign,” Kingsley said. “Our system is based on a fine balance of public financing and financing from other sources.”

As such, the new act — which got all-party support — also introduced a $2.71 per-vote subsidy for parties that got at least two per cent of the popular vote in the previous election. That annual allowance will be gradually reduced over the next five years, and then be reviewed.

“Perfection is the enemy of the good. Here, we have something which is very good,” Kingsley said.

He agreed donations should be closely monitored.

“The only concern we have to have is to make sure they’re only individuals acting on their own, and not part of a group of people working together and who get reimbursed through some means by a firm, for example. It has to come genuinely from their own resources,” he said.

Kingsley was backed up by U of T political science professor Nelson Wiseman, who also helped inform the legislation. Wiseman said concerns raised by Democracy Watch about the limits are “over the top.”

“It’s just not a lot of money,” he said.

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The attorney general’s office maintained the relatively new rules are robust.

“Ontario demonstrated its leadership in election finance regulation by introducing a number of measures that transformed the province’s political fundraising and spending rules,” spokesman Andrew Rudyk said in an email.

Election day is June 7, 2018.