The Globe and Mail provides a fast food junkie's guide to governmental conflict of interest:Imagine yourself, newly arrived in Ottawa, as the freshman minister of cheeseburgers. Before moving into your office, might you be inclined first to divest yourself of your personal interest in Harvey's? Particularly if your interest amounted to a whopping one-quarter ownership of the company?
It seems to us that any politician thinking clearly on the subject would answer yes, sell the stock immediately and reroute the money into a more neutral investment.
The analogy has been used by the Globe to exemplify, in very simple terms, the position federal Conservative Health Minister Tony Clement finds himself in since it's become well known that he owns an interest in the drug manufacturer, Prudential.
Clement has been pounded by the opposition daily on this matter and has thus far refused to seperate his personal financial matters from his new job. This, from the party of so-called accountability. And, if it was good enough for the goose...
It is hard to think of a more flagrant conflict. Even Paul Martin's much-discussed ownership of Canada Steamship Lines was removed by several bureaucratic steps from the influence of the Prime Minister's Office.
...it ought to be good enough for the gander.
Why, then, isn't it?
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