Honest Politics

There have been enormous changes in Canadian public life in the past two decades. More and more, politicians and officials are expected to act honestly and in the public interest. Yet, for many, honest politics is still an oxymoron. Using high-profile political scandals as case studies, this book explores the standards of accountability to which Canadian politicians are now being held. The authors discuss conflict-of-interest and abuse-of-trust cases such as Brian Mulroney's receipt at secret meetings of envelopes stuffed with thousand dollar bills; the gas plant scandal in Ontario; Allison Redford's self-serving authorizations of spending in Alberta; Mike Duffy and the Senate expenses scandal; party financing cases such as the Robocalls affair; "dirty hands" examples such as the sponsorship scandal and the Arrar affair; the "cash for access" controversy surrounding Justin Trudeau's fundraisers; and municipal issues including the sagas of Rob Ford and Hazel McCallion. Canada is a leader among countries promoting ethical politics in a democratic society. In this book expert authors from across the country discuss the strengths and weaknesses of measures now in place and point to the most important challenges that remain before Canadians can believe that honesty prevails in public life.

For many, honest politics is an oxymoron. Yet there have been enormous changes in Canadian public life in the past two decades to identify and address expectations that politicians and officials will act honestly and in the public interest. Using high-profile political scandals as case studies, this book explores the standards of accountability to which Canadian politicians are now being held. Among the case studies addressed are the gas plant scandal in Ontario, the "Railgate" scandal in B.C., the Robocalls affair, the "sponsorship scandal", Stephen Harper's attack on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the saga of Rob Ford. This book critically analyzes changes introduced and implemented over the last twenty years intended to deal with ethical issues in politics, including the boom of independent ethics commissioners, the regulation of lobbyists in Canada, and federal efforts to protect whistle-blowers. Contributors to the book include experts in all these areas, drawn from across the country.

Honest Politics provides a framework for distinguishing right from wrong in politics and supplies some ideas for ensuring that ethical decision-making can be enforced. Greene and Shugarman look at the ethical issues raised by conflicts of interest, patronage, party financing, and lobbyists. They discuss a variety of high-profile cases, including Bill Vander Zalm and Fantasy Gardens, Ralph Klein and Multi-Corp, and Kim Campbell and the Pearson Airport deal. In Honest Politics, the authors assert that honesty in public life is not an impossible goal but something we can demand and achieve.

Scientists have a choice concerning what role they should play in political debates and policy formation, particularly in terms of how they present their research. This book is about understanding this choice, what considerations are important to think about when deciding, and the consequences of such choices for the individual scientist and the broader scientific enterprise. Rather than prescribing what course of action each scientist ought to take, the book aims to identify a range of options for individual scientists to consider in making their own judgments about how they would like to position themselves in relation to policy and politics. Using examples from a range of scientific controversies and thought-provoking analogies from other walks of life, The Honest Broker challenges us all - scientists, politicians and citizens - to think carefully about how best science can contribute to policy-making and a healthy democracy.

Through a comprehensive analysis of legislative and organisational changes and interviews with all the key players, The Honest Politician’s Guide to Prisons and Probation provides an authoritative account of the crisis which has gradually engulfed the prison and probation services since 1991. Setting out the nature and extent of the crisis, King and Willmott show how the Woolf agenda was overridden in a process of political churn, through explorations of the Conservative government until 1997, New Labour from 1997 to 2010 and the Coalition and Conservative governments since 2010. Uniquely, interviews with all surviving Home Secretaries and Justice Secretaries of the period include insightful and candid reflections upon their time in office, and how they saw the future. Views from both inside and outside the prisons and probation services are also explored, based on interviews with the Director Generals of the Prison Service and of the new National Probation Service, Chief Inspectors of Prisons and Probation and the four most recent Lord Chief Justices, including Lord Woolf himself. Concluding by drawing on this collective wisdom, King and Willmott set out what is needed for an effective and sustainable future. It is essential reading not just for those in Westminster, but also for practitioners in criminal justice, advocacy organisations, thinktanks and scholars and students in Criminology, Criminal Justice, British Politics and Public Policy.

Americans deserve honest government. This text addresses the need for a comprehensive statement of ethical behavior for public officials and employees at every level of government. Recognizing the need for legal reforms that focus mainly on campaign contributions, the authors examine the broader question of how we should measure the routine, day-to-day ethics of men and women in public service. By focussing more on attitudes and practices, the authors suggest that the highest standard of both ethics and competence should be demanded of all our public servants. The book identifies situations in which officials ought to act cautiously and presents the ethical rules that should be applied to each situation. The text presents a philosophy of public service and then moves to particular situations to which this philosophy must be applied: campaign finance; the campaign itself; behavior of elected officials, appointed officials, and public employees; the role of lobbyists; compensation for public servants; moving to and from the public and private sectors; ethical guidelines for lawyers and judges; the private lives of public servants; and enforcement of ethics. The final chapter discusses the sometimes competing forces of ethics and competency. Ethical guidelines are gathered in the appendix and serve as a useful starting point for ethics in any public service setting. The combination of persuasive and thought-provoking proposals for governmental ethics reform along with practical guidelines on how to maintain the highest possible standards of ethical conduct makes this an important text for students in ethics and government courses, as well as an imperative reading for public officials, whether elected, appointed, or career.

"This is the first of four books in this series. The characters highlighted here range from discourteous teenagers; the savvy longterm unemployed; frazzled shoppers; the conniving media, dodgy financial backers; captains of failing industries... and everyone in between." -- back cover.