No More Partisan Prop Cheques, Ethics Commissioner Tells Tories

The Conservatives should stop using ceremonial cheques decked out in Tory slogans or colours at government spending announcements, the federal ethics commission said Thursday.

Mary Dawson said the use of partisan props doesn’t technically violate either the Conflict of Interest Code or the Conflict of Interest Act, but she still wants it ended.

“I am of the view that the practice of using partisan identifiers in announcing government initiatives goes too far and has the potential to diminish public confidence in the integrity of members and the governing institutions they represent,”‘ she said in a written report on the issue.

When the issue arose last fall, Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged that the use of a Tory symbol on a government cheque was improper.

“The use of a partisan logo on a government announcement was not correct,” he told the Commons.

Dawson got 63 complaints from Liberal and NDP MPs complaining about the use of Tory colours, logos, or slogans on ceremonial cheques brandished at news conferences or announcements. Liberal Wayne Easter alone submitted 59 complaints.

“The underlying concern was that the use of these cheques or other props was misleading and served to benefit certain members, ministers, parliamentary secretaries and a minister of state, as well as their political party, by enhancing their profiles and improving their electoral prospects, thereby serving to further private interests.”

But Dawson ruled that the prop cheques, while they may promote a party, can’t be interpreted as furthering private interests.

“I concluded that both the code and the act were intended to relate to private personal interests and that they were not intended to extend to partisan political interests, such as raising one’s profile or enhancing one’s electoral prospects.”

She said none of the individuals named in the complaints contravened the code or the act.

She added, however, that announcements of government spending programs are government activities and it’s not appropriate to label them with partisan identifiers.

Dawson said she also received an unusual number of complaints from the public, “not only about the cheques, but also, more generally, about partisan elements in government advertising.”

Her report found that partisan labels have crept into more and more government spending announcements over the last 15 years, under both Liberals and Tories.

She said it is up to governments, or perhaps the Commons itself, to decide how to deal with the politicization of spending announcements.

The government could take the first step by tightening Treasury Board policies.

“For example, ministers could be explicitly prohibited from including partisan or personal identifiers on any communications products whose purpose it is to advertise or inform the public about government programs, without regard to who prepares those products and who organizes the events at which they are used.”

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