Doug Ford defends decision to hold campaign fundraiser in Vaughan

CP24.com
By Chris Fox
April 9, 2014

Mayor Rob Ford’s campaign manager is defending a decision to hold a major re-election fundraising dinner outside of Toronto.

The $300-per-plate event will be held at the Riviera Parque Banquet & Convention Centre in Vaughan on May 8 and so far, is just the second official advertised event of Ford’s campaign after an April 17 launch at the Toronto Congress Centre.

“Everyone knows someone that lives in the 905. There are not just millions but billions of dollars invested by people who have businesses here and live in Vaughan,” Coun. Doug Ford told reporters at city hall Wednesday afternoon. “If you look at every (candidate) contribution list from last time there was a tremendous amount of contributions from Vaughan, from Richmond Hill, from Thornhill and we had a group of people say ‘Hey can we do a little fundraiser?’ and we are going to have numerous fundraisers like that right across the city.”

Though the City of Toronto Act allows any Ontario resident to donate up to $2,500 to mayoralty candidates, some have questioned whether taxpayers should be on the hook for helping to partially reimburse donations collected outside the city.

Under the contribution rebate program, donors are eligible for a 75 per cent rebate on contributions between $25 and $300, meaning attendees at the Vaughan dinner will get a cheque for $225 from the city.

“Just imagine if we had a mentality where we closed the door around Toronto?” Doug Ford said, when asked about the optics of city taxpayers having to foot the bill for donations collected elsewhere. “We don’t care where you live, if you want to invest in Toronto come by and invest.”

It is not unsual for candidates to receive donations from outside of Toronto, but actual campaign events outside of the city are rare.