The ethical voice

Harper's apparent first choice as a replacement Ethics Commissioner rightly criticizes the PM for his treatment of the current occupant of the office:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's heavy-handed "boycott" of an ethics investigation has made the resignation of Parliament's much-maligned ethics commissioner all but impossible, says former MP Ed Broadbent...

"The prime minister put him in a position that he can't resign now. You can quote me on that," Broadbent said in an interview today.

"It will look like he was hounded out of office and then it will make it difficult for anyone coming in to look like other than someone who is going to be totally acceptable to the prime minister."

And that rebuke comes despite Broadbent's apparent agreement with Harper on the substance of the matter:

"For what it's worth, Mr. Harper is right in implying that the ethics code doesn't apply," said Broadbent.

But it is not for the prime minister to make such a judgment in his own case, he added. Moreover, by refusing to co-operate with the investigation, Harper is breaking an explicit provision of the conflict code.

The latter point, which is one that Mark noted a couple of days back, nicely drives a wedge between Harper and anybody who expected any improvement in prime ministerial ethics...and it appears that whatever grounds Shapiro may have lacked to investigate Harper before, he now has a slam-dunk case on (yet another) refusal to cooperate.

Broadbent closes by suggesting an eminently sensible resolution whereby Harper cooperates with this investigation, then Shapiro resigns once the immediate investigation is complete. It's up to Harper whether he wants to take the advice of the man whose message he tried so hard to co-opt...or whether he'd rather be known all the more for discarding any sense of ethics once he tasted the slightest bit of power.