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“I just spent two-and-a-half hours with mayors from across the region. They didn’t pay a cent,” Wynne said.

The premier declined to say who would be attending the dinner, but said all of the donations would be posted online as required.

Ontario’s opposition parties offered only muted criticism of Wynne’s fundraising methods because they do pretty much the same thing.

“I think what people want to see is that fundraising is not related to public policy decisions, so there’s no tie between government decisions and who it is that gives them money,” said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

“The issue becomes what comes out of the access.”

Progressive Conservative house leader Jim Wilson said he’s heard the Liberals have set minimum fundraising targets for every cabinet minister and for every backbencher who wants a promotion to the cabinet table.

“I think that’s more reprehensible than the fact that parties do raise money and they do have dinners,” said Wilson. “It looks bad when you have a single-interest dinner, and so I’m a little suspicious about what goes on behind closed doors.”

Ontario political parties have been slow to consider following the federal government’s lead to ban corporate and union donations, which makes fundraising a lot more difficult for politicians.

In Ontario, people, corporations or unions can donate $9,775 to a party each year, another $9,975 to the party for each campaign period, plus $6,650 annually to constituency associations of any one party, but no more than $1,330 annually to a single constituency association. They can also donate $6,650 to candidates of any one party in a campaign, but no more than $1,330 to a single candidate.