Former Conservative minister Chuck Strahl says he quit the board of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation after the Liberals tried to use him as "a foil or a cover for what they’re doing."

On Wednesday, Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc challenged NDP Leader Tom Mulcair in the House of Commons to "ask Chuck Strahl" about the foundation’s independence, after Mulcair accused the Liberals of failing to follow their own ethics rules by allowing Chinese national Zhang Bin to attend Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s private fundraiser dinner in May.

Soon after the $1,500-a-person Liberal fundraiser, Zhang and another man signed an agreement to give a $1-million donation to the Montreal charity named for Trudeau’s father, along with the University of Montreal’s Faculty of Law.

$50,000 dollars of the donation will be used to install a statue of Trudeau’s father, $750,000 will go to scholarships at the law school and $200,000 will support foundation conferences and events, according to a statement from the foundation. The foundation maintains that it is an “independent, non-partisan charity.”

Strahl told Evan Solomon on the Ottawa radio station CFRA that he’s "not angry or annoyed with the Trudeau Foundation" but "plenty annoyed at the Liberals for dragging my name into the House of Commons and using me as a foil or a cover for what they’re doing."

"Clearly people understand it’s just not right," Strahl said of the Liberal fundraising dinners, which the NDP and Conservatives both maintain break the Liberals’ own ethics rules, which were put in place to avoid the perception that access to government ministers can be bought with donations to the party.

"This is the same thing that got Hillary Clinton in trouble down south," Strahl said. "You too closely mix your personal, your business, your political and your governmental work, and people … cannot unscramble this mess."

Strahl said the prime minister is not involved in the day-to-day operation of the foundation, may not have had anything to do with Zhang’s donation and that he is not accusing him of that. The "problem," according to Strahl, is that the "Trudeau family (are) the ones who choose the directors."

Trudeau responded to the swirling ethics questions earlier on Thursday, telling reporters in Liberia that he has not been "in any way associated, formally or informally, with the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in many, many years," and that he stepped down "shortly after having gotten elected in order to demonstrate that there is a tremendous separation there."

But Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs told CTV’s Power Play Thursday that she still believes the donation breaks rules on avoiding preferential access or the appearance of preferential access to government.

"The Liberal Party’s guidelines say that for businesses or corporations doing business with government, they should not be invited to fundraisers," Stubbs said.

"This is just yet another example of a cavernous gap between what the Liberals say, what they promise and what they actually do," she added.

New Democrat MP Tracey Ramsey said Canadians "are sick and tired of this type of spending."

"We’re very unhappy to see the Liberals setting these rules from themselves, then breaking them (and) pointing fingers at the Conservatives saying, 'They did it so we did it,'" Ramsey told Power Play.

Liberal MP Karina Gould defended her party, stating that no laws had been broken. "We do have really strict fundraising laws and we’re abiding by those," she said.

Gould said the charity, which is best known for its humanities scholarships, does "good work."

It’s not the first time the year-old Liberal government has faced questions over their high-priced fundraisers.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau was the guest of honour last month at a small Halifax fundraiser that cost $1,500 a ticket. Earlier this month, he appeared at a $500-per-ticket fundraiser in Toronto.

Morneau told CTV’s Question Period that the people attending fundraisers are supporting "the democratic process" and "it doesn't in any way suggest that the people that are going to a fundraiser have any different sort of access."

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has also faced criticism over her fundraising, including an event at a Toronto law firm with a $500 entry price.

Outgoing Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson said in June that the fundraisers are not "savoury" and raise questions about unfair access.