The Ethics Shuffle

Spring cleaning came early for the federal cabinet. But it's unlikely to alter the pattern of ethical lapses that the Liberals have fallen into.

Of course, Prime Minister Chretien would have us believe that yesterday's cabinet overhaul had nothing to do with recent political scandals. But if this is the case, why were the three most discredited ministers -- Alfonso Gagliano, Minister Hedy Fry Maria Minna -- all turfed from cabinet.

To deal with the governmentís recent ethical lapses, Chretien removed the offending ministers, and waved in John Manley to help mop up the mess. Manley will be overseeing infrastructure and crown corporations, two of the most highly politicized government dossiers previously the fiefdom of Gagliano. He will take over from Allan Rock as the political minister for Ontario, giving Manley a prominent role in patronage appointments, as well as party workings at the provincial and riding level that will be crucial in the race to replace Chretien as leader. And in his new role as deputy prime minister, Manley may have to answer for Chretien in the House of Commons on ethics issues whenever the prime minister is away or feels like ducking questions from opposition parties.

On the surface, Manley is good choice to mask the government's integrity problems. As foreign affairs minister, his solid performance in the government's post-September 11 national security efforts earned him Time Canada magazineís "Newsmaker of the Year" title, and polls confirm his popularity is rising.

While he has leadership aspirations, his personality is bland and non-threatening. Religious, cautious and soft-spoken, at first blush he is the ideal choice as the front man to gloss over the government's growing conflict-of-interest quagmires.

This strategy might work if Chretien was simply dealing with a few bad apples. However, while sanctioning ministers caught with their fingers in the cookie jar sends a positive message to both the public and to the new cabinet, the Liberals' ethics problems are the result of a system that is itself a scandal.

The Mulroney Tories were plagued by scandal, leading to a steady string of cabinet resignations that steadily eroded Canadians' faith in government.

Rather than cleaning up the rules that allowed these scandals to occur, Chretien opted to redefine scandal, setting the bar low so that ministers can exercise a full range of undue influence. The prime minister leads by example in this regard. A year ago, after being caught lobbying one of his own appointees -- the head of the Business Development Bank of Canada -- on behalf of a private company in his riding, Chretien illustrated his own ethics standard. "You call who you know," the prime minister said in dismissing allegations of wrongdoing.

What results from Chrétien's redefinition of scandal is a system that is highly permissive of conflicts of interest. Ethics rules for ministers are overseen by a short-leashed ethics counselor that is trotted out by the prime minister to repeat that ministers have been "cleared of wrongdoing" whenever a potential scandal emerges. The Liberals' 1993 promise to create a code of conduct for MPs and senators has long been buried. Political fundraising rules continue to allow hidden money to flow freely from special interests to party leadership candidates and other MPs. And Canada's access to information system has severely deteriorated, making it far more difficult for government watchdogs to keep the government more accountable and transparent.

Manley has, in the past, demonstrated little willingness to deal with these types of systemic problems. As industry minister, he defended his department's paid membership in BIOTECanada, the biotechnology industry lobbying association. In addition to playing a formal role in the association, Industry Canada provided more than $1 million in funding to BIOTECanada.

Industry Canada regulates key aspects of the controversial biotech industry, and with its support for the industry association, the department was, in essence, paying to lobby itself.

The department's biotech connections are the subject of a complaint that the ethics counselor has refused to rule on for the past 15 months.

Using a cabinet shuffle to remove a few bad apples can help clean up a government's image. But by failing to deal with the systemic problems that encourage political corruption, Jean Chrétien can expect newer scandals to emerge.