I called for the resignation of Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin’s chief of staff Tim Murphy, along with that of his minister of North Korean-style healthcare, Ujjal Dosanjh, on Tuesday after I’d read the transcripts provided by Gurmant Grewal. I said Paul Martin already has more than enough reasons to tender his resignation too. I knew that would make the eyes roll among the thirteen readers of this blog.
I’m just a dumb old citizen, and the liberals of the land don’t listen to us. But what if other people who work for big newspapers say it? Then is it a valid notion? Andrew Coyne says it today in his National Post column, Not breaking law not good enough.
[…] The Conflict of Interest and Post-Employment Code for Public Office Holders imposes upon both Cabinet ministers and ministerial staff the obligation, inter alia, ‘‘to uphold the highest ethical standards so that public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of government are conserved and enhanced,’’ and ‘‘to perform their official duties and arrange their private affairs in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny.’‘
The upshot is that it is not enough for Mr. Dosanjh and Mr. Murphy to say that they observed the strict letter of the law. Ethically, they are forbidden, not only from making explicit promises of public offices in exchange for an MP’s vote, but from any tacit understanding to that effect; they are required, not only to refrain from deliberately creating such an impression, but to take care that they do not do so inadvertently. That is why the general rule in more enlightened jurisdictions requires the office-holder to immediately end any discussion that so much as comes near the subject. Or forget the ethics codes. Are we permitted to say that what they were doing was just plain wrong?
By whatever standard, they have failed in their duties. Their final responsibility, accordingly, is to submit their resignations, at least pending the resolution of opposition complaints to the Ethics Commissioner and the RCMP. If they will not do so of their own accord, it is the Prime Minister’s responsibility to demand it of them. And if he will not do so, or give a fuller explanation of his own involvement in this squalid affair, then it is his resignation that should be demanded next.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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