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The new rules would not only limit the venues for such fundraisers to “publicly accessible spaces rather than private homes or clubs,” but would also require that such events be “publicly advertised.”

The party would also have to issue a “public report” stating the number of attendees, as well as the total haul, and the Liberals, at least, would commit to allowing media to be in attendance as well.

As sceptics were quick to point out, that wouldn’t actually “ban” those $1,550-a-head ministerial meet-and-greets, although it would at least flush them out of the shadows – or, in this case, the private salons and dining rooms of wealthy political well-wishers – as well as force the party to reveal just how profitable such ventures can be.

What’s even more interesting, however, is the scope of the rumoured new restrictions, which would reportedly include not just cabinet ministers, but all party leaders – and even leadership contestants.

Now, that’s not quite as sweeping as the new rules brought in by the Ontario Liberals last year, which impose a blanket ban on not just ministers and party leaders, but all elected members, as well as candidates, nomination contestants and many political staffers from showing their faces at party fundraisers.

Even so, from the perspective of the opposition parties, it could be viewed – not necessarily unreasonably – as a shameless attempt to blur the controversy over the prime minister’s past presence at such events by treating it as an ethical affliction to which all parties are similarly prone.