Ethics Newsline®

Special to Newsline from Canadian correspondent Errol P. Mendes

OTTAWA
The Ottawa Citizen is reporting that a poll conducted one day after Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien fired Defense Minster Art Eggleton and demoted his public works minister for ethics breaches, Canadians want him to do more on the ethics front.

In the national poll conducted for the Ottawa Citizen, 70 percent of those polled say that the PM should go further to promote ethical behavior on the part of his cabinet.

Eighty-two percent of those polled agreed with the firing of the defense minister for giving a former girlfriend a $24,000 contract for a 14-page report on a subject that was already been studied by others connected to the department.

Sixty percent of those polled felt that the PM should also have fired his minister of public works, Don Boudria, for staying at a luxury cottage of a government contractor who had won millions of dollars worth of contracts. Instead, the PM demoted Mr. Boudria to the position of Government House Leader, a position he had held before.

Other cabinet ministers are also facing allegations of conflict of interest. Prime Minister Chrétien has promised major ethics reforms in the face of a storm of controversy over allegations of cronyism in the awarding of government contracts and the value of work done under those contracts.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is also investigating some of the contracts in question, the Citizen reported.