A needed complaint

While I don't agree with Democracy Watch that election promises should be enforceable through the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner, it never hurts to point out the long list of Con promises which have already gone by the wayside:

The lobby group Democracy Watch has launched a formal complaint with the federal ethics commissioner accusing the Conservative government of breaking election promises...

Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch says Bill C-2 - the federal Accountability Act - breaks or omits 13 specific promises made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the run-up to the Jan. 23 vote.

Included on Conacher's list were Tory promises to require ministers to record all contacts with lobbyists, to protect all whistleblowers, to promptly disclose whistleblower complaints, to close conflict loopholes for ministers and to allow the public to launch ethics complaints.

Conacher says the new Accountability Act also deletes from the ethics code a clause requiring politicians, their staff and senior public servants to "act with honesty."

Of course, it's pretty clear that the lack of a public complaints mechanism itself undermines any chance of action on Democracy Watch's list. But with one of the groups which threw much of its support to the Cons last election now rightfully decrying Harper's broken promises, there should be plenty of opportunity for the opposition parties to find common cause with Conacher in holding the Cons accountable.