The Harper Conservatives, and the Liberals in the past, have both benefited from the fact that it is against the law for Officers of Parliament like the Auditor General and other good government watchdogs to release their reports when Parliament is shut down.

In late 2003 the Auditor General's report on the Adscam sponsorship scandal could not be released because then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien had shut down Parliament.

And when Prime Minister Harper unjustifiably shut down Parliament twice, and broke his promise when he called a snap election in September 2008, he delayed accountability on key issues because reports by various Officers of Parliament could not be released.

Some watchdog agencies and commentators claim that releasing reports during elections is too political, but keeping reports secret is equally political.  Given that the reports are almost always about the government's past actions, it is clearly more democratic to release the reports and give voters the right to decide how the information affects their vote.

So this government accountability flaw must finally be corrected -- Officers of Parliament must be required by law to release their reports on the scheduled date or whenever they complete them.