Prime Minister Mark Carney and other Canadian prime ministers should be required to divest their investment portfolios when they assume office, not just put them in a blind trust, the House of Commons ethics committee recommends in a new report.
In its report made public Thursday morning, the committee said putting assets in a blind trust isn’t good enough, recommending instead “that the Government of Canada amend the Conflict of Interest Act that, for the application of subsection 27(1) the prime minister, as a reporting public office holder, is fully divested from their controlled assets through sale, since placement in a blind trust does not constitute true divestment.”
The committee also wants the law amended to require public disclosure of “high-level holdings categories placed in a blind trust by reporting public office holders (sector/asset class, and whether the holdings are Canadian-market concentrated),” a recommendation that could shed new light on the financial interests of a number of top officials and cabinet ministers.
Community building is a grassroots issue. I know a lot of community organizers who are fantastic people and good at what they do. I’m not sure they would do particularly well on the international stage.
But let’s say maybe they are great leaders and would do well as PM. Would it not be better to establish laws that take money out of the campaign landscape and level the playing field so that people like this are able to have a fighting chance? That doesn’t mean forcing them to liquidate once they’re elected. It means controlling the influence of wealth on campaigns and providing guidelines that socializes the campaign process.
If you force liquidation on the PM, you won’t solve the problem. You will just make sure that the average PM is a stooge. The guy who made his own fortune won’t bother with this shit, but the sleazy prick with nothing to lose, out the career politician with skeletons in their closet will damn well jump at the chance to gain power at the behest of anyone willing to throw money at their campaign.
You’re fixing the wrong problem. We want people with the wherewithal to become Carney-esque in the first place to run just as much as we want community organizers to have that opportunity, but placing barriers to entry to the former won’t ensure the latter gets the job.