Carney Promised Higher Standards. His Government Just Tabled a Bill to Weaken the Rules on Fundraiser Transparency.

On March 26, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon tabled Bill C-25. The 45-page bill makes sweeping changes to the laws governing federal elections and party politics in Canada. Buried inside it is a provision that would scrap the fundraiser transparency rules the Liberals themselves passed in 2018 — the same rules introduced after a cash-for-access scandal forced Justin Trudeau’s government to apologize and change course.¹

Five days later, on March 31, MacKinnon held a press conference on Parliament Hill to defend the change. The bill now moves through the House of Commons with a Liberal government that is polling in majority territory and expected to pass it without difficulty.

To understand what is being dismantled, you have to remember what was built. In 2016, The Globe and Mail revealed that then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and senior cabinet ministers were raising millions of dollars through private fundraisers — held in homes and exclusive venues, with ticket prices up to $1,500 — that gave wealthy donors direct access to ministers outside the glare of public scrutiny. The reporting exposed what critics called a cash-for-access system.²

The backlash was severe enough that in 2017 the Liberals announced they would stop holding closed fundraisers in private homes. In 2018, they went further — passing legislation that required political parties to publicly advertise any fundraising event priced at more than $200 per person attended by ministers, party leaders, or leadership candidates. The law also required parties to post attendee lists after the events.³

It was an imperfect law. Democracy Watch called it a half-measure. But it represented the first real disclosure regime for high-dollar political access in Canadian history. And it was passed by the Liberals themselves, as an act of contrition.

Bill C-25 unwinds that regime. The Hill Times reports that the legislation would “scrap fundraiser transparency” while strengthening privacy rules for political parties — making it harder for the public to see who is paying how much, to whom, and for what access.⁴

The bill arrives in a political context the government controls. The Liberals are polling in majority territory. Three byelections on April 13 are expected to deliver the seats needed for a formal majority. The bill includes provisions designed to rein in foreign interference, outlaw certain questionable donations, and “kneecap” the Longest Ballot protest movement — giving the government multiple non-controversial headlines to distract from the disclosure changes.

Brian Jones / Unsplash — MacKinnon defended the lowering of fundraiser transparency at a press conference on the Hill on March 31. The bill would also strengthen privacy rules for political parties — limiting public access to party records.

This is not the first signal from the Carney government that transparency standards are slipping. In February, the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail reported that Carney was holding closed-door fundraisers — including a $1,775-per-ticket event at a private residence in Vancouver that was closed to media. Reporters from The Globe and Global News were turned away from another event in Edmonton in September 2025. The party told journalists fundraising events were “no longer open to media.”⁵

Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said the shift was the prime minister “selling access to wealthy voters and their private interests.” He pointed out that the average annual federal political donation is $75 — meaning a $1,775 ticket is roughly 24 times what an ordinary Canadian gives in an entire year. “Currently, we have an undemocratic, unethical, legalized bribery political donation system,” he said.⁶

The closed-door fundraisers are a practice. Bill C-25 is the law that would make the practice harder to scrutinize.

The timing matters. Carney has promised his government would meet “high standards” for ethics and transparency. The Liberal Party website still states that fundraising events with cabinet ministers, party leaders, and leadership candidates “should meet high standards for transparency,” including advance posting of events and timely reporting of details.⁷

Bill C-25 is the legislative retreat from that promise. The 2018 law was one of the few concrete transparency measures passed in the last decade of Liberal governance. It was the direct response to a scandal that nearly broke the Trudeau government. Eight years later, the same party is proposing to repeal the rules it wrote about itself.

The lobbyist question is the one that cannot be answered without disclosure. Current Liberal Party policy commits to keeping registered lobbyists away from fundraising events where they are actively lobbying the relevant minister. But as Conacher noted, “there’s no way to double-check” if reporters aren’t present and if attendee lists are no longer required. Remove the disclosure regime, and the only check on cash-for-access is the government’s own promise to follow rules that no longer exist.⁸

In 2016, The Globe and Mail caught the Liberals running a cash-for-access system. In 2017, the Liberals apologized. In 2018, the Liberals passed a law requiring themselves to disclose who attended their high-dollar fundraisers. In 2026, with a majority within reach, the same party has tabled a bill to repeal that law. The prime minister who promised higher standards for ethics is now the prime minister whose government is legislating lower ones. Bill C-25 is a 45-page bill with enough other provisions — foreign interference, protest-movement crackdowns, electoral district renaming — to bury the transparency rollback inside. But the rollback is the provision that tells you what this government actually thinks about who gets to see what it does. The cash-for-access scandal that defined the Trudeau years is being quietly legislated out of existence. And the public will no longer have the tools to catch the next one.