Friday, January 20, 2006

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch called on the leaders of all the main federal political parties to offer voters what they want, a meaningful guarantee that promises made will be promises kept, such as by pledging“I will resign if I break my promises” and pledging to pass an “honesty in politics” law.

 The leaders of the main parties have made a total of 1,147 promises, as follows:

• Bloc Québecois - 255 promises
• Conservative Party - 242 promises
• Green Party - 216 promises
• Liberal Party - 222 promises
• NDP - 212 promises

Four of the five leaders’ promise-making was put on the spot in the first two election debates in December, as they faced four questions from voters (chosen from among 10,000 questions submitted by voters) and a couple of questions from the moderators.  In a remarkable display of national unity in terms of misleading voters, all the leaders dodged giving any meaningful guarantee that they will keep their promises.

Democracy Watch will continue to push on behalf of voters across Canada for the passage of an honesty-in-politics law (supported by most Canadians, as shown in every poll taken during the past decade, including every election poll) and push the leaders to make this key commitment before election day, and after.