After nearly two decades of fighting for greater accountability in federal politics as the head of Democracy Watch, Conacher is now seeking to strengthen the integrity regime that governs Toronto and all other Ontario municipalities.
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Ontario's current accountability system is a patchwork. Each municipality drafts its own code of conduct and appoints its own integrity commissioner, if they appoint one at all.
Conacher wants Queen's Park to create a new powerful integrity position that would have jurisdiction over all Ontario municipalities, under a single, uniform code of conduct.
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Last month, Conacher petitioned Leiper to revisit her decision on Ford. Unsurprisingly, she declined. He now says he plans to take the issue to court and ask for a judicial review of her ruling. He’s currently looking for a lawyer to take his case.
(On Friday, the Globe and Mail reported that Leiper received another complaint about Ford, this time about allegations in court documents that he used city staffers to run personal errands. It’s not yet known if she’ll investigate.)
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Whether the province will take up Conacher’s push for reform remains to be seen.
“The ministry carefully considers all suggestions for changes to legislation that we receive,†writes May Nazar, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. “We are currently reviewing the Municipal Act and the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. It is important that we take the time to engage with municipalities and the public on any potential changes and to determine what would best benefit the residents of Ontario’s cities and towns.â€
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Perks feels that rewriting the rules would be the easy way out. Instead of asking how the law can be used to tame Toronto's rogue leader, he says, Ford’s critics should be asking how he got elected four yeas ago despite his obvious flaws.
"He was known to be a liar, he was known to have problems with substance abuse and public behaviour, he was known to be a homophobe. And nevertheless, he got more votes than anybody else," Perks says. "That doesn't speak to a problem with our accountability and integrity mechanisms, that speaks to there being something in Toronto's politics where enough people are willing to accept that behaviour from politicians in exchange for something else he was offering.
"The right question is, what has our society and economy done to alienate people to the point where they thought in 2010 that the upside of Rob Ford was worth the downside? That's the real issue that people should turn their minds to, not to whether or not we need new provincial legislation on the integrity commissioner."
