Much is often said in political circles about the benefits of openness and transparency in government. It's hard to argue with that: after all, politicians work for us. Why shouldn't we be able to see what they're doing?
Lately, this question has become more and more pressing, in the wake of the expenses non-scandal (MPs and parties not wanting to hand over their budgets to be scrutinized by the Auditor-General) and the Afghan detainee documents scandal which in its own way nearly led to a parliamentary crisis.
In both cases, three out of four parties came to a collective agreement to relent in favor of openness—for that we can be thankful. In regards to the expenses non-scandal, it was the Liberals, the Conservatives and the NDP who decided to release their information to the Auditor-General—with the Bloc declining to jump on the bandwagon (odd, considering their initial enthusiasm for such disclosure). As for the Afghan documents scandal, it was the Liberals, the Conservatives, and the Bloc who seem to have reached an agreement with the NDP declining to sign on.
It’s worth noting that neither of these examples represents a matter of us, the poor embattled taxpayer gaining a victory for transparency. As columnist Don Martin was quick to point out, our party leaders and Members of Parliament didn’t relent because they saw the light and came to their senses, but because they didn’t want to go home to a lot of angry constituents come summer break. In a way, it was evidence of the typical cowardice of elected officials, arguably working out in our favour for a change.
These were battles won through slow, steady attrition, as citizen after citizen, op-ed after op-ed, slowly chipped away at the resolve of our elected officials until we finally beat them into grudging submission.
I think we can be quite proud of ourselves for this. Still, when it comes to MP expenses, this will not and should not be the end, notes pundit Lorne Gunter. We should continue to push for more, demand more. And I might add that we should continue to do so until openness is the government’s default position and we no longer have to fight inch by bloody inch to get what we deserve: honesty and transparency. In the Afghan document situation, the same attitude should be taken. Perhaps the deal which has been struck will serve as a template for the future disclosure of information at Parliament's request.
But if these precedents are not set, then we have gained nothing in the end. I would suggest that as summer rolls around, we keep our politicians' feet to the fire until this realization sinks in, for us and them.
Any comments, hate mail, or love notes? Drop me a line or four at dresdenmorrow@gmail.com, or give me grief on Twitter @wmorrow1
