Ethical questions hang over leaders

The Saskatoon Starphoenix and the Regina Leader-post are delving into some of the most pressing issues affecting Saskatchewan voters during the election campaign. Today, we look at ethical issues that have come up during the campaign.

WHAT’S THE ISSUE?

Unlike other topics that have come up during the campaign — the rising cost of living, pipelines, climate change — you won’t find a section dedicated to ethics in the major parties’ platforms. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been an issue since well before the election was called on Sept. 11.

Separate from the so-called bozo eruptions and other scandals that have sent every party’s war room into damage control mode during the campaign, questions about ethics are ultimately about a leader’s trustworthiness and suitability for office rather than past behaviour or poor judgment.

The leaders of both major parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, have both come under fire on the matter.

Since 2015, the federal ethics commissioner has twice found that Trudeau broke ethics laws. In December 2017, then-commissioner Mary Dawson found that Trudeau contravened four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act by accepting a family vacation on the Aga Khan’s private island in the Caribbean.

Earlier this summer, Mario Dion ruled that Trudeau again violated the act by improperly pressuring former attorney general Jody Wilson-raybould to give Snc-lavalin Inc. a deferred prosecution agreement, which would allow the Quebec engineering giant to avoid a criminal trial.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, have had to face questions of their own following reports in the Globe and Mail that Scheer called himself an insurance broker despite not being licensed to sell insurance in Saskatchewan, and that he holds dual Canadian-u.s. citizenship, which he has since said he is renouncing. What’s at stake?

Ethical issues are not going to directly affect people’s lives, in Saskatchewan or anywhere else in Canada. They won’t on their own decide the fate of a pipeline project, end trade wars or reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But they could affect the outcome of the election, which would impact everyone.

Whether that happens, though, remains an open question. Nobody really knows how many will weigh ethical questions in the voting booth. Some might be concerned enough to consider voting for a different party, while others might dismiss ethical issues outright. Still more people might hold their noses and vote for someone they believe is ethically compromised.

What is clear is that both the Conservatives and the Liberals believe the issue is important, as evidenced by how much time they have dedicated to raising questions about their rivals’ ethical issues.

The Snc-lavalin scandal has been headline news across Canada since the Globe and Mail reported it in February, while Liberal and Conservative partisans have been quick to target Scheer and Trudeau.

So what does this all mean? In Saskatchewan, only three of the province’s 14 ridings are expected to be in play when Canadians go to the polls on Oct. 21, and only two feature Liberals racing against Conservatives. Every leader has been criticized, but NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has not had significant ethical issues raised since he took over the party’s top job.

While questions about the party leaders’ trustworthiness could well affect the results in Saskatoon West, Regina–wascana and Desnethé—missinippi—churchill River, it is unlikely to make much of a difference in the province’s other 13 seats — all of which, polls and seat projections suggest, are extremely likely to go to the Conservatives.