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The measures are a compilation of the proposals of the four nation-wide coalitions Democracy Watch coordinates (Government Ethics Coalition, Money in Politics Coalition, Corporate Responsibility Coalition, Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition). A combined total of more than 140 citizen groups with a total membership of more than 3 million Canadians belong to the coalitions, groups that work on anti-poverty, bank accountability, community economic development, consumer, corporate responsibility, environment, labour, social justice, women and youth issues.

Many national surveys over the past several years have shown that a large majority of Canadians support the government accountability reforms set out in the Report Card, as do many commentators on democratic reform.

The 16 sets of changes, divided into five areas, all reflect the following five key elements for ensuring that large, powerful government institutions act responsibly and follow rules: 1. strong laws with no loopholes; 2. requirement to disclose details of operations and violations; 3. fully independent, fully empowered watchdog agencies to enforce laws; 4. penalties that are high enough to encourage compliance; and 5. empowerment of citizens to hold governments and watchdog agencies accountable.

The parties were given a grade ranging from A (Platform makes clear promise to implement proposal) to I (Platform does not mention proposal), with grades B for a vague or partial promise to implement the proposal, C and D for clear to vague promises to explore the proposal, E for mentioning proposal and F for mentioning the theme of the proposal. Grades were averaged for each of the five areas, and the average of area grades was used to calculate the overall grades.

The highlights of the Report Card are as follows:

The NDP had the best overall grade of C+, and the best grade in three of the five areas graded (the Honest, Ethical Government area, the Representative, Citizen-Driven Government area, and the General Government Accountability area);
The Green Party was second with an overall grade of C, and the best grade in two of the five areas graded (the Open Government area, and the Efficient Government area);
The overall grade for the Conservative Party (E-) is much worse than its grade in Democracy Watch's 2006 election platform Report Card (B), a clear sign that being in power has corrupted the Conservatives;
The Liberals are no better with an overall grade of F, the same as they received in the 2006 Report Card, a clear sign that they are trying to get back into power with no commitment to democratic reforms nor government accountability;
The strongest overall area grades for all the parties were in the "Representative, Citizen-Driven Government" area, a sign that all the parties are coming to understand that meaningful consultation with the public is needed before significant decisions are made;
The worst overall grades for all the parties were in the Honest, Ethical Government area, and the Efficient Government area, a sign that all the parties still lack commitment to honest, ethical government, and effective waste prevention and spending accountability, and;
All of the parties except the Liberals promise to increase Parliament's role in reviewing appointments currently made solely by the Prime Minister, and ensuring merit-based nomination and appointment processes.

A new feature of the Report Card is the "Dishonesty Downgrade". Democracy Watch has highlighted a 50% cut in every party's overall calculation to make voters clearly aware that its experience over the past 15 years of producing such report cards has shown clearly that parties usually promise twice as much as they do, whether or not they are elected into power. The Dishonesty Downgrade essentially lowers each parties's overall grade by one full grade (for example, the Conservatives overall grade was E-, but after the Dishonesty Downgrade was applied it became an F).

"Given that history has shown that politicians usually break half of their election promises, voters should be wary of trusting any political promises," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "The problem for voters is that they don't know which promises each party will break, which is why dishonesty in politics violates fundamental voter rights, and why it must be stopped by a comprehensive, effective, honesty-in-politics law with high fines for misleaders."

The 2008 Report Card is an updated version of the Report Card issued by Democracy Watch during the 2006 and 2004 federal elections, reflecting changes that have occurred in federal laws since 2004.

Democracy Watch graded the parties' election platforms by reviewing the platforms. Statements by party leaders or representatives were not taken into account as they are not fully accessible to all voters, nor are they binding in any way on the party (as admitted by many party leaders) and as a result are even less reliable than promises made in the parties' platforms. (Please see Backgrounder set out below for details and relevant excerpts from the parties' platforms)