Ethical Stupidity

The codification of politics is the process by which politics and politicians are increasingly subject to rules and regulations in the way they conduct business. The upside of this is that politics, on the surface, becomes increasingly transparent, normalized and accountable.

The downside, is that political debate becomes legalized. The debate is no longer whether Minister X did something good or bad. The debate becomes whether or not he broke the rule. What politicians are doing is washing their hands of their responsibility to judge between right and wrong. Instead of debate between leaders, we have a poor middleman stuck in the middle. The Ethics Commissioner is being asked to do the impossible. Politicians seem to want a referee. This used to be the Speaker. Now, politicians want the Ethics Commissioner to judge impartially whether members and ministers are following the rules. Next they are going to want a quiet chair, where the EC can send the bad kids that don't follow the rules.

Politics is messy. Politics is not easily regulated. Politics can be transparent, without abdicating its responsibility to judge between right and wrong.

The new standard for ministerial responsibility will be: Did the EC find any wrong-doing? This is not the question that should be asked. Ministers must be responsible to the House, and not the EC. Ministers must resign when the House demands it, either through a motion of censure or through a unanimous sentiment within the chamber. This is a purely political process, and cannot become the sole purview of quasi-judges. Politicians, give yourself some credit. Take back the power to call a spade a spade, and stop contracting out the moral responsibility to a hired gun.