Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a press conference in Ottawa, on April 13.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre introduced his plan to tighten ethics rules for elected officials if he forms the next government, promising more transparency and accountability and higher fines for violators.
Anyone who is advising government who stands to gain financially from that advice would be required to register as a lobbyist, ending what Mr. Poilievre termed “shadow lobbying.” He also pledged to increase the fines for ethics violations to $10,000.
“A new Conservative government will bring change by introducing the Accountability Act 2.0, designed to remove the loopholes that [Mark] Carney and the Liberals are using to avoid accountability for themselves and for their party,” Mr. Poilievre said.
The Federal Accountability Act was legislation passed by then-prime minister Stephen Harper in his first term.
Mr. Poilievre said under his plan, cabinet ministers would have to divest fully from tax havens and disclose their assets to the Ethics Commissioner, with penalties for non-compliance.
There would be no more “so-called blind trusts,” he said, saying right now they are blind only to the public.
“It means that when you’re going into cabinet, including becoming prime minister, you would actually have to sell all the assets, turn it into cash, hand that cash over to a trustee, who would then invest it from scratch, unbeknownst to you, so that you would not have any ability to know what interests you have that go against the public interest,” Mr. Poilievre said.
He pointed to a section in the current ethics legislation that allows politicians to make a decision that benefits themselves or their families, if it benefits others as well. He said that this section has been “widely over-interpreted” and the Conservatives would put a stricter test in place.
Conservatives would ban politicians, specifically ministers, from any involvement in decisions that would benefit their interests more than the public interest, he said, and they would have to declare those interests publicly. It would also require approval from the Ethics Commissioner, according to a statement from the party.
The Conservatives would also mandate anyone running for public office to disclose where they paid taxes for the previous seven years, and require party leaders to disclose their assets within 30 days of becoming leader. Prime ministers would also have to disclose within 30 days of assuming office.
Mr. Poilievre framed the announcement around Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who served as the chair of Brookfield Asset Management and is under pressure to disclose his assets publicly as well as any potential conflicts of interest.
Last month, he said he had complied with ethics rules and did not have any potential conflicts of interest.
He also said he would set up conflict-of-interest screens with the Ethics Commissioner. He dismissed reporters’ requests that he publicly declare his financial holdings, saying he put his assets into a blind trust.
Mr. Poilievre also criticized Mr. Carney’s record on dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump, although he noted the tariffs are solely Mr. Trump’s fault.
When asked about who would lead the negotiations with Mr. Trump if Mr. Poilievre formed government, he said he would announce his foreign minister and cabinet after the election.
He added that a government led by him would take foreign interference seriously, pointing to his support of a foreign-agents registry. The Conservatives worked with the Liberals to pass legislation that would set up such a registry, Mr. Poilievre said, but the registry was not enacted ahead of the election.