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.
you do realize that he would still be rich, this isn’t a vow of poverty, it’s just selling off stocks and stock options etc so that he doesn’t stand to directly gain (he’s been installing friends to high-paying positions BTW)
lol
Source on him installing friends to high paying positions?
He’d be “rich” is a funny way of putting it. Do you know what his holdings are? I have seen estimates that his net worth is something like $5 mil. If that’s true, it’s a good chunk but it’s hardly Scrooge McDuck territory. So we’re paying him something like $400K a year but if he has to sell $4M in stocks, say, and half of that is a capital gain that’s somewhere over a half million in income tax. So we’re asking him to fork over about two and a half years of net salary as PM up front for the privilege of being our Prime Minister.
Good plan!