Prime is King

Stephen Harper “is loath to co-operate with” the ethics commissioner on the investigation into the Prime Minister’s enticement of David Emerson to change party the day after the election. His office said that the PM wants to “to create a truly non-partisan ethics commissioner, who is accountable to Parliament." This is funny because the one place you cannot possibly have a non-partisan ethics commissioner. If the commissioner were to investigate a Member of Parliament, how could he be answerable to the body control by either his party or his opponents? And when the commissioner investigates a bureaucrat, does the minister responsible for the bureaucrat no a member of the majority of the Parliament? The point of having an independent ethics commissioner is to have his office independent of parliamentary influence. If the commissioner is accountable to the Parliament, is he not really accountable to the leader of the majority of the Parliament—the PM? If Mr. Harper “loathes” co-operation with the commission now, what would he do if the commissioner were under his thumb? Just a month into his reign, Mr. Harper is certainly looking imperial.