Please Like and Share this page with everyone you know. Canadians deserve politicians, politicians’ staff, Cabinet ministers, Cabinet appointees and government officials who make decisions and govern democratically.
Helping with the Democratic Good Government Pledge campaign is simple, download a copy (in PDF or RTF) and send or take it to your town, city, provincial, territorial or federal politician, and election candidates, and their staff, appointees and government employees, and ask them to sign.
You can find the contact information for your federal, and provincial or territorial politicians here.
Send a letter (through the form to the right) to key politicians, asking them to sign the Pledge!
You can also help push for democratic good government by downloading and posting on social media and/or printing and posting everywhere the “I’m Voting for Good Government” sign (click here to download it)
Please let us know which politicians, candidates, and government officials you are appealing to, and if and when they sign the Pledge, by sending us an email with “Democratic Good Government Pledge” in the Subject line.
The System is the Scandal and no one should be surprised that Canadian governments, politicians, government employees, corporations and big business executives act dishonestly, unethically, secretively, unrepresentatively or wastefully — the system allows them to do so through weak rules, weak enforcement, and weak penalties. This is not at all to say that all, most or even many politicians, government employees or corporate executives are dishonest, unethical, secretive, non-representative or wasteful — but if any of these people act in these ways they will often not be caught, let alone penalized, because of loopholes in laws and rules and weak enforcement systems.
The law and enforcement systems do not go far enough to require politicians, their staff, appointees, government employees, and election candidates to act and make decisions in ways that ensure the democratic good government that Canadians expect and want.
This is why Democracy Watch developed the 7-point Democratic Good Government Pledge. The Pledge is simple and brief and can be taken by any politician, political staff person, appointee, or government official. It outlines a commitment for these people:
- To be honest by telling the truth, not withholding information or putting a “spin” on things, and not slandering anyone;
- To be ethical by exceeding the requirements of ethics law by not asking for or accepting gifts from anyone trying to influence them, and not participating in decisions where they or their friends or family have any kind of direct or indirect personal interest, and not using government property for themselves or their political party;;
- To be open by exceeding the requirements of open government laws by disclosing all details of their on-the-job expenses, and details about all communications with anyone trying to influence them, and details about government decision-making processes;
- To be representative by taking the time to understand stakeholders and citizens concerns about policy or program decisions, assisting all constituents fairly with their needs, and not trying to force anyone to vote any way other than how a majority of their constituents want;
- To be waste-preventing by seeking the lowest financial cost for effectively accomplishing anything and by using competitive processes for all spending; and
- To be respectful by discussing issues with facts, evidence, logic, and principles, refraining from heckling, and not attacking others with exaggerated claims.
- I will support law, code and policy changes by voting in favour of bills and changes to codes, policies, guidelines etc. that require everyone in politics and government to uphold the standards set out in the six areas listed above.
Download a copy of Democracy Watch’s Democratic Good Government Pledge: PDF Format — RTF Format
Please Like and Share this page with everyone you know. Canadians deserve politicians who make decisions and govern democratically.
And please help Democracy Watch keep this campaign going until all politicians, political staff, election candidates, appointees, and government employees sign on – please donate now here.
Thank you very much!