NDP and Conservatives tie with D- while Liberals, Bloc and PPC all receive an F
Great to see Green Party promise to enact an honesty-in-politics law but, given lack of law and past pattern of ruling party breaking half of democratic reform promises, voters should be very skeptical of every promise made by every party
8 key, written rules needed to have a fair post-election, and fair minority government
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Saturday, September 18, 2021
OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch released its Report Card on the Federal Parties’ 2021 Democratic Reform Platforms (See the summary Report Card below, and click here to see the full Report Card).
The Green Party received a C- as the best grade of overall bad grades for all the parties, as their platform was weaker than their 2011 election platform when they received a B- grade.
The NDP and Conservatives tied with D- while the Liberals, Bloc and Conservatives received an F.
One breakthrough is that the Green Party promised to enact an honesty-in-politics law to ensure parties tell the truth during election and referendum campaigns – the first federal party to make such a promise – and the Green Party and NDP also both promised measures to address misinformation and disinformation, especially online.
However, given the current lack of an honesty-in-politics law, and the fact that Prime Minister Chrétien, Prime Minister Harper, and Prime Minister Trudeau all failed to keep half of their democratic reform promises (Prime Minister Martin didn’t make any), voters should be very skeptical of every promise made by every party.
The Liberals’ platform is a failure compared to their 2015 election platform that received a B grade, and is as weak as their democratic reform record since 2015:
- the Liberals broke most of their open government promises;
- Prime Minister Trudeau broke his electoral reform promise;
- they failed to make the political finance system more democratic;
- they ignored recommendations to strengthen whistleblower protection in a unanimous House Committee report;
- they ignored recommendations to stop secret, fake online election ads in a unanimous House Committee report, and;
- Prime Minister Trudeau and Liberal Cabinet ministers have been involved in many secrecy and ethics scandals.
The Conservatives platform was very weak compared to their 2006 election platform when they were elected into power – in that platform the Conservatives promised 60 democratic reform and government accountability changes in their so-called “Federal Accountability Act”, and earned them a B grade.
The NDP’s platform was also very weak compared to their 2015 election platform when they earned a B grade.
Many surveys over the past 15 years have shown that a large majority of voters do not trust politicians, and want honesty, ethics, lobbying, open government and other reforms to stop politicians from abusing their power. Hundreds of thousands of messages have been sent to federal party leaders and politicians through Democracy Watch’s campaigns calling for the 100 changes needed to ensure fully democratic and accountable federal government and politics.
“All the federal parties have unfortunately failed to respond to high voter concern about democracy and trust issues,” said Duff Conacher, Founding Director of Democracy Watch and chairperson of its four nation-wide coalitions. “The party leaders should not be surprised by the lack of support they will receive from voters on election day. One can only hope that the parties will actually address these concerns when Parliament opens again so that everyone in federal politics will, finally after 154 years, be effectively required to act honestly, ethically, openly, representatively and to prevent waste.”
“While it is notable that the Green Party has promised an honesty-in-politics law, given the current lack of such a law, voters should be wary of trusting any political promises,” said Conacher.
Democracy Watch and the coalitions it leads will continue to push for all 100 key changes.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]
Democracy Watch’s Campaigns page
Sources
Bloc Québécois platform webpage
(NOTE: See part 16 “Éthique” on page 16 of platform)
Conservative Party of Canada platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 68-70 of platform PDF)
Green Party of Canada platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 87-89 of platform PDF)
Liberal Party of Canada platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 164-167 of platform PDF)
NDP platform webpage
(NOTE: See pages 116-119 of platform PDF)
People’s Party of Canada platform webpage