-- TORONTO -- The Toronto Centre Liberal riding association raised nearly $430,000 for George Smitherman in 2008 -- the same year its president, Jason Grier, lobbied ministries Smitherman led for a long list of corporate and government clients.*
Grier, a former executive assistant and senior policy adviser to Smitherman, left the then-health minister's staff in March 2005.
He started his lobbying career a year later.