Recipients of a prestigious medal who were nominated by Ontario MPPs gave about five times more in political donations to the governing PC party than they did to the opposition NDP, according to records analyzed by CTV News.
And for that subset of recipients of the King Charles III Coronation Medal —which include a dentist and PC donor whose practice claimed to treat “the Ford family”—politics may have played an outsize role in who was selected, said one watchdog who looked at the data.
“Whenever politicians are handing out anything, it’s based on politics,” said Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch in an interview, saying he’s concerned the perception of money and favours being traded “taints” the medal.
About 30,000 people got King Charles III Coronation Medals, nominated by public service organizations across Canada for being someone who has made a significant contribution to Canada or made an outstanding achievement that brings credit to Canada.
According to the Governor General’s office, 1,447 people were nominated by MPPs in Ontario.
CTV News looked at political donations coming from that group of 1,447 nominees. In that group, about 500 were political donors.
Since the PCs were elected in 2018, that group gave about $60,000 to the Green Party, about $295,000 to the Ontario Liberals, about $500,000 to the NDP, and about $2.5 million to the governing PC Party, according to Elections Ontario records.
The PC Party donations added up to about five times the donations to the NDP, which is the official opposition, even though in that time the PCs have had only about twice the number of MPPs in the legislature.
There are plenty of reasons that donations to the PCs would be higher, said Conacher, including that they are the party with more donations coming in $1,000 or above, and that the ruling party is often more successful with donations.
“Our political donation system allows for bigger donations the average voter can’t afford, and that gives power and influence,” he said, though he allowed that there could be many truly deserving recipients in the group.
There is some overlap in the group of donors and the people whose companies received millions from the province’s controversial Skills Development Fund, which has been pilloried for months in Question Period as a “slush fund” by opposition parties.
As an example, Dentacloud is listed in provincial records as getting a $2-million grant from the Skills Development Fund, and provincial donation records show director John Maggirias gave about $20,000 to the PC Party.
Maggirias got a King Charles III Coronation Medal. Until recently, Maggirias’s dental practice claimed on its website that it treated “the Ford family,” though Ontario Premier Doug Ford denied having been there.
Maggirias’s staff didn’t answer questions from CTV News about the nomination process for the medal.
Ford told reporters Tuesday he was not the MPP who nominated Maggirias, saying he was just technically listed as the nominator in this group because he is the premier.
“Let me just clear up about this King Charles Medal thing. Even the opposition [nominations] fall under my name as premier. We handed out, I guess, thousands of them across the province. And the people who got them, got them, and that’s it,” Ford said.
The Ontario NDP’s leader, Marit Stiles, said she believes the figures show the same pattern the party has alleged in the legislature on the Skills Development Fund: that insiders have access to favours from the governing party.
“What does this pattern say? I think it says that it’s more likely there’s a pattern of preferential treatment, gifts, and so on to people who donate to the Conservative party,” Stiles said in an interview.
The PC government has stood by the Skills Development Fund and the labour minister who oversees it, saying it’s an important investment in retraining workers.
One of the recipients, Keel Digital Solutions, is now under investigation by the OPP for how it handled millions in contracts from another ministry, and the company says it’s done nothing wrong.
Many recipients of both the medal and the grants told CTV News they earned them fairly.
The Ontario Harness Horse Association received about $4.4 million in grants from the Skills Development Fund, which it says trained more than 500 participants in the Ontario Equine Education and Employment Program.
Association President Jim Whelan received a King Charles Medal through a nomination from the speaker of the legislature, Donna Skelly, he said.
“I’ve worked tirelessly for the industry. That’s my passion and my love, because I’ve always felt the stronger the industry was, the better chance I had for me and my family to survive and make a living,” he said.
Records show Whelan donated about $25,000 to the PCs in the last ten years, and with his immediate family that rose to at least $43,000. The records show a $300 donation to the NDP and a total of $1,000 to the Ontario Liberal Party in that time.
Whelan says he doesn’t believe his donations played a role in either award.
“I doubt if she [Skelly] would know about the donations,” he said. “In my life I have personally and financially supported all political parties.”
Construction firm Aecon is listed as getting just over $2 million in grants, which the company said helped women and indigenous people in construction through tailored training programs.
Aecon’s board chair, John Beck, received a King Charles Medal, with an Aecon spokesperson saying “he is very deserving of the recognition and has had a successful and award-winning 60-plus year career building Canadian landmarks.”
Beck’s name is listed as giving about $25,000 to the PC Party, $2,500 to the Liberal Party, and $1,800 to the NDP, according to Elections Ontario records.
After this story was published, Maggirias’s staff said in an email to CTV News he has proudly donated to and supported more than a hundred charities and community initiatives.
“These include everything from sponsoring local sports teams, to participating in national dental care efforts like the Manitoba and Alberta Dental Foundations, Brush-a-mania and to other broader causes in support of culture and the arts (Breakfast clubs, elementary STEAM education, etc.),” wrote Dentacloud’s Chief Operations Officer, Edward Kwan.
