Either Way, It Corrupts

Historian and moralist Lord Acton said it  and we've all heard it.  Now we get our chance to experience it ... again.  ""Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," Acton wrote to a friend.  I rather prefer William Pitt's take on it: "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it."What we are witnessing now in Ottawa is the corruption of the public space. Whether that corruption is absolute or merely partial doesn't matter; either way, the power corrupts. The Conservatives knew full well that placing their logo on cheques of largesse violated the conflict of interest code but they did it anyway, for three reasons at least. The first is that their chief opposition has been compromised by their own past. Everyone recalls the Sponsorship scandal. Whenever Liberals stand up in the House to correctly warn the government of this kind of corruption, the inevitable response is: "Well, you guys did it too." You hear it from both the government and the media and it's true. The point is though, Stephen Harper came to power swearing he would clean this kind of thing up. Instead, he has turned it into an art form.The second reason the government feels it can get away with it is the success it's had in turning the public off politics altogether. Their damaging form of negative advertising has not only turned Canadians off, they've stopped showing up at the polls as well.  Canadians, in the main, don't like this stuff, and so they opt out. Knowing that, the government ramps up its partisan efforts in ways that corrupt, increasingly raising the skepticism of the citizens. If nobody shows up in the stands, it doesn't really matter how you play the game.And that's the third reason the present government is failing on its promise to make politics more ethical. It realizes that undertaking initiatives like putting the party logo on public cheques is likely unethical, but it is politically effective. The fact this is happening across so many disciplines in government has moved the goalposts of corruption increasingly towards the absolute.Section 2 (b) of the Conflict of Interest Code states the following.  Each MP must:

fulfill their public duties with honesty and uphold the highest standards so as to avoid real or apparent conflicts of interests, and maintain and enhance public confidence and trust in the integrity of each member and in the House of Commons."

Can anybody tell me if this is what's happening at present? Don't bother informing me that the Liberal's did it. It's true; I acknowledge it. But the point is, nobody should be doing it, and right now the government is guilty of perpetuating a pattern that is steadily eroding the public service and the public space. My Conservative MP friends know this is happening, and in quiet moments acknowledge their consternation. I'll leave it to them to take their own respective stands.Canada is not Conservative, Liberal, or any other political persuasion for that matter, regardless of what the parties say. It is Canadian and belongs to its citizens as is best expressed through the non-partisan public service. That sphere is steadily eroding as Stephen Harper stickhandles a minority government as though he possesses a majority.  When former Conservative PM Joe Clark said last week that the Harper Conservatives are "a private-interest party in a public-interest country," he expressed a painful truth that will bring him grief from his own party. But it is the current practice and, to the best we can, we must stop it.