{"id":2732,"date":"2013-06-20T12:57:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T16:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2013-06-27T01:20:19","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T05:20:19","slug":"politics-as-usual-political-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-political-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Political Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Political ethics, or the lack thereof, has been much in the news as of late.
\nTo many, the mere concept of political ethics is oxymoronic. How could it not be? Politicians are routinely lampooned for their lack of character, their hard but shiny veneers that hide a multitude of sins.
\nFrankly, we\u2019re no better here in Canada. With the now-alleged connection of the Mayor of Toronto to the pre-dawn raids in Toronto to find drugs and guns and illegal stashes of cash, to the RCMP investigation of a Senator and the former Chief of Staff of the PMO no less, the public\u2019s confidence in elected officials has been shaken to earthquake proportions.
\nThe fallout of these two looming crises is yet to be seen, but it is clear that the worst is still to come, and that will have a detrimental effect on whatever remaining faith we have in our elected officials that they will do their jobs with some measure of integrity, no matter how small.
\nSo it is within this larger context that I watched with some bemusement, the Aurora Council\u2019s deliberations on yet another iteration of the Town\u2019s Code of Ethics. Given what has transpired in Aurora over the last decade or so, I think it is safe to say that this policy has had, and will continue to have, little or no relevance to the actual workings of municipal office.
\nIt certainly hasn\u2019t affected how some who hold or have held office discharge their responsibilities.
\nFull disclosure here \u2013 my day job is oversight of ethics and regulatory compliance and conduct within the context of research conducted in a post secondary institutional environment.
\nClearly, I am not against ethics codes or regulations. I think professional codes of ethics are a vital check and balance for those professions they govern. If that represents a bias, so be it.
\nWith that in mind, I will say that I have always found the creation and, worse, the adoption of codes of ethics for politicians to be highly problematic for two main reasons: lack of objective criteria and potential for abuse.
\nA code of ethics presumes there is a common standard of \u201cpractice\u201d for the profession or association. It is predicated on the assumption that there is in fact an agreed upon set of known metrics against which a politician\u2019s actions will be measured.
\nJust who decides the metrics? Who is the arbiter of \u201cappropriate\u201d actions? We have heard some politicians state categorically what is and is not \u201callowed\u201d in terms of fellow politicians\u2019 conduct. Really?
\nAnd what skill set do members of Council, by virtue of just getting elected, bring to the table that affords them the ability to make that judgment?
\nThe language of political codes of ethics is so vague, so broad, that frankly anyone can be accused of violating them and virtually anyone can argue that they have breached nothing.
\nThe second? Politics is a very dirty game and the availability of laying such a juicy charge as being \u201cunethical\u201d against a political foe is almost too much for opposing parties, or politicians to resist.
\nWe have seen it at virtually every level of government. Charges of breaching the code of ethics are shouted out in the council chambers, and legislatures and House of Commons of the nation, and salaciously covered in virtually every newspaper. Facts don\u2019t matter. Implication is everything.
\nAs someone who regularly deals with issues of ethics compliance and non-compliance, I can tell you that such allegations are always handled confidentially. Why? Because you can\u2019t un-ring a bell, that\u2019s why.
\nLaying a charge isn\u2019t the same as being found guilty of a charge. Yet, in political circles, all that matters is laying the charge \u2013 loudly and publicly \u2013 knowing full well that the allegation alone is often enough to do significant reputational damage.
\nIt abuses the very purpose of the code of ethics in the first place \u2013 to be educational. The code is there to act as a guide for appropriate actions while in office \u2013 not act as a sword of Damocles ready to slice you in two whenever your opponent feels the need \u2013 or sees the advantage.
\nThat\u2019s it for this week, until next week stay informed, stay involved because this is, after all, Our Town.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Political ethics, or the lack thereof, has been much in the news as of late. To many, the mere concept of political ethics is oxymoronic. How could it not be? Politicians are routinely lampooned for their lack of character, their hard but shiny veneers that hide a multitude of sins. Frankly, we\u2019re […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-I4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 07:37:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}