Accountability rules in Ottawa
March 25, 2026 1:57 PM
We are seeing strange days on Parliament Hill right now.
First there’s all the (still-)swirling speculation on a spring election, and (more) rumblings from the Liberal Party that they just won’t stand for Conservative shenanigans anymore.
Then there are the two MPs and a senator involved in internal investigations for fraud or contempt of Parliament, and two staffers being investigated by the RCMP.
It’s pretty easy to think that Canadian politics has never been more broken.
I have a slightly different point of view. I take it as a potentially positive sign that the actions of politicians are subject to scrutiny and perhaps sanction.
Even more so when said politicians are in the ruling party, and especially when the process of investigation is carried out in public.
Therefore, naturally, if Bev Oda is found in contempt of Parliament by a committee of her peers, she should face serious consequences, up to and including being fired or serving time in jail.
After all, Oda reversed a recommendation from CIDA for NGO funding by having a staffer clumsily insert the word “NOT” into a memo, and then attempted to conceal this when questioned in the House,
Similarly, the Harper government could be found in contempt for refusing to produce documents revealing the cost of their flagship law-and-order legislation.
It did so despite the fact that there was no reason for said documents to be kept confidential, and I expect serious consequences to fall on them as well: fines, jail time, an election.
However much you may personally revile Stephen Harper (and I know some of you do), the fact is that his government is already being publicly shamed for its actions.
It will likely face real consequences for the terrible decisions of its members and staffers. This a direct result of the safeguards within the Canadian political system to prevent politicians’ ego and privilege from completely running away with them. For long.
Listen, I don’t really think the overall political climate in Canada is going to change that much, that fast.
Even if an election is called next week, and Ignatieff and his Liberals, or Layton and his NDPs, spend a small fortune on attack ads calling the Conservatives corrupt or smug or megalomaniacal or anything else, the balance of power isn’t going to swing that far to the left.
Partially because ‘smug,’ or maybe ‘ideological,’ are terms that could be quite comfortably applied to, let us say, more than one major party leader.
Nevertheless, even minor alterations to the composition of Parliament speak volumes as to what is and is not acceptable behavior in the eyes of Canadians.
Even if Bev Oda is let off the hook for contempt of Parliament, her actions may (and should) lead her constituents to seriously question if they want her as their representative.
The Conservative Party’s actions with regards to their hugely expensive law-and-order legislation (which was justified in part by the increase in “unreported crime”) may or may not be found to be officially contemptuous.
But regardless, their questionable record on public disclosure may (and should) lose them supporters, and a few seats in the House.
The capacity for voters to effectively fire their representatives by refusing to re-elect them is a sign that our democracy functions.
Democracy is the game politicians play; to mangle the cliché, don’t hate the game, hate the players.
With files from CBC and the Globe and Mail
