The race to break promises

The Star reports on some rumours surrounding the Con's effort to fill cabinet positions and other government jobs. But buried in the article, one finds that having taken over government, the Cons are already making noises about avoiding the governmental ethics that formed the basis of their campaign:

Then there's the question of the Tory ethics package, which has caused reticence among some likely candidates for senior jobs because of the provision that will prevent ministerial staff from lobbying the government for five years after they leave...

An Ottawa-based Tory, who has been approached about playing a senior role in an as-yet unspecified minister's office, said the party's accountability plan still has to clearly define what activities would be subjected to the five-year cooling-off period.

There are whispers the Tories won't object if a parliamentary committee waters down some of the tough new rules, which only adds confusion to the party's official stance that the rules will stay as they were drafted.

It doesn't surprise me in the least that the Cons are now sending signals about encouraging future lobbying now that they see greater potential for future power as a result. But while the Cons appear to be demonstrating their own lack of principle, it's the response of the other parties that'll determine whether or not there's a meaningful obstacle against the revolving-door cycle of government work and lobbying in the future.

Note in particular the Cons' plan to get the rules relaxed in committee. Presumably the committee's makeup would reflect the proportion of seats in Parliament, such that the Cons couldn't make any change on their own. And given the relative lack of lobbying power in each party, it's hard to see why either the NDP or the Bloc would want to water down the bill.

Which means that with the Cons sending signals that they're willing to lower the bar now that they're in power, it'll be up to the Libs to determine whether or not to relax the restrictions on both the Cons today, and possible Lib governments to come. And that should give Canadians an excellent opportunity to see whether a reforming Lib party really wants to clean up government, or whether both the Libs and the Cons see criticism of the culture of entitlement as merely a means to set up new cultures in the future.