Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to introduce stricter ethics rules for elected officials, arguing that Canadians deserve more transparency in government. He unveiled his “Accountability Act 2.0,” a follow-up to the Federal Accountability Act introduced under former prime minister Stephen Harper, saying it would remove loopholes that let politicians profit from decisions made behind closed doors.
“A new Conservative government will bring change by introducing the Accountability Act 2.0, designed to remove the loopholes that [Mark] Carney and the Liberals are using to avoid accountability for themselves and for their party,” Poilievre said.
He pointed specifically to current ethics legislation that permits politicians to make decisions benefiting themselves or their families if it also benefits others, calling it “widely over-interpreted.”
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Under Poilievre’s proposed system, anyone advising the government who stands to gain financially from that advice would be required to register as a lobbyist. Fines for ethics violations would rise to $10,000. Poilievre also pledged that cabinet ministers must divest fully from tax havens and disclose assets to the Ethics Commissioner, with no more “so-called blind trusts.”
“It means that when you’re going into cabinet, including becoming prime minister, you would actually have to sell all the assets, turn it into cash, hand that cash over to a trustee…unbeknownst to you, so that you would not have any ability to know what interests you have that go against the public interest,” Poilievre said.
He framed much of his announcement around Liberal Leader Mark Carney, formerly chair of Brookfield Asset Management, whose financial holdings have attracted scrutiny. Carney has maintained that he complied with ethics requirements by placing assets in a blind trust.
Poilievre, however, insisted his legislation would demand more direct disclosure, including revealing where public officials have paid taxes for the last seven years.
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