Wednesday, June 9, 2004

OTTAWA - Today, Democracy Watch called on media outlets across the country to ask federal political party leaders whether they will resign or call an election if they break their promises to voters, whether they will pass an “honesty in politics” law if they form the next government, and whether they will disclose donations made to their party in 2003 before election day.

"Any party leader should not be trusted by voters if they refuse to pledge to resign or call an election if they break their promises, refuse to pledge to pass a law to make it easy for voters to challenge lies by politicians and public officials, or refuse to disclose who has bankrolled them and their party,” said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch and chairperson of the nation-wide Government Ethics Coalition. “If the media fail to ask all party leaders these key questions, preferably during the TV debates, they will be helping the leaders mislead voters.”

“I believe it is very important for political leaders to keep their promises.  But don’t over promise and then whatever you say you’re going to do -- do.”
Prime Minister Paul Martin, May 29, 2004
(In contrast to the above statement, Martin has only clearly  promised to resign in two years if he does not keep 3 promises of the many promises the Liberals have made)

Democracy Watch and the nation-wide, 30 member group Government Ethics Coalition called on all the federal parties to promise that they will pass law be passed that makes it illegal for politicians and other public officials to lie, gives citizens an easy way to file a complaint with the new federal Ethics Commissioner, and gives the Commissioner the power to impose very high fines for lying.

"Canadians are sick of politicians baiting voters with promises, and then switching direction when they win power,” said Conacher. "The cynicism-breeding habit of politicians and public officials lying will only be stopped if Canadians have an easy way to challenge lies, and have the liar punished, similar to the relatively easy way that exists to challenge corporations and corporate executives who lie."

If any Canadian corporation lies in its advertising, only six Canadians need to sign and send a letter to the Competition Bureau and the Bureau will investigate and determine whether the corporation lied, and what corrective measures are required.  If any corporation or corporate executive lies to their shareholders, the shareholders have the right to go to court and seek compensation for the damage done by the lies.

During federal election campaigns, and during elections in every province and territory except Quebec and New Brunswick, it is illegal for anyone to lie about a candidate, but it is only illegal in B.C. for a candidate to lie about what they promise to do or what they have done.  However, the B.C. system for challenging election lies is too costly and inaccessible to citizens.

Perversely, the federal elections law actually makes it illegal for a candidate to sign a pledge "if the document requires the candidate to follow a course of action that will prevent him or her from exercising freedom of action in Parliament, if elected, or to resign as a member if called on to do so by any person or association of persons."  All parties should also promise to remove this section as it is a barrier to the public trying to hold any politician to their promises.

According to an Elections Canada-commissioned poll of almost 1,000 non-voters from the 2000 federal election (the only recent, comprehensive poll of non-voters), the highest-ranked reason for decreased interest in politics by non-voters was “false promises/dishonesty/lack of confidence in politicians,” while the second-highest ranked change that would make non-voters more interested in politics was “more honesty, responsibility, accountability” in government.

“I have always practised full disclosure.  I believe the Canadian people are entitled to full disclosure.”
Paul Martin, June 11, 2002
(At the time, Martin was refusing to disclose the identities of donors to his Liberal Party leadership campaign trust fund)

Democracy Watch and the nation-wide, 50-member group Money in Politics Coalition also called on the media to ask all party leaders to disclose donations made to their party in 2003 before election day.  The old federal elections law does not require disclosure of donations from a previous year until July 1 of the following year -- the new elections law requires that parties disclose donors every three months, and limits donations to relatively low amounts compared to the old system.

All that is known about 2003 donations to the federal parties, from media reports, is that Paul Martin donated approximately $3.8 million to the Liberal Party (funds left over from his party leadership campaign) and unions collectively donated approximately $3.5 million to the NDP.

In addition, the media must ask all party leaders to disclose any donations they and their candidates have received that are not required to be disclosed by law before election day.  In particular, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper must disclose on an easily accessible website who bankrolled his recent successful party leadership campaign, Conservative Party candidate Peter Mackay must disclose who paid off his debt from his 2003 party leadership campaign, and Liberal Party candidate Tony Ianno must disclose who donated the $260,000 he has claimed he has in a personal bank account.

Ianno and MacKay have refused to disclose their donors so far, and Democracy Watch has been told by Conservative Party headquarters that it will not disclose donations to candidates for its recent leadership campaign until December 2004.  Under the new MPs ethics code Ianno and MacKay would be required to disclose their donors, and under the new federal elections law Harper would be required to disclose his donors, but neither the code nor the law were in force when they did their fundraising.

“Voters have a democratic right to know before they cast their vote who has bankrolled political parties and candidates for public office, especially because unlimited secret donations were allowed until recently” said Conacher. “If the media does not push party leaders to disclose all their donors before election day, they will help the leaders deny voters theirright to know this key information.”