Back in 2006, Stephen Harper rode to electoral victory by promising the most sweeping package of democratic and parliamentary reforms the country had ever seen.

Harper made the campaign pledge in the wake of a controversial series of political scandals and democratic abuses under successive Liberal governments.

While his critics may have doubted his commitment, Harper in fact acted quickly by making the Federal Accountability Act the first piece of legislation he n brought in after assuming power.

At the time, Harper said the act would restore Canadians’ trust in government, limit political donations, restrict lobbying by former cabinet ministers, decrease the control of leaders over party nominations, reduce secrecy and ensure protection for whistleblowers.

Today, most of those promises are sad jokes.

Indeed, Harper has introduced some positive changes in government accountability since he was sworn in as prime minister some nine years.

However, he didn’t act on nearly 50 per cent of those 2006 promises, has taken steps backwards on others, failed to enforce his own rules, cut key ethics rules, increased secrecy and ignored other legal and ethical loopholes.

This uneven record raises questions about whether Harper is a friend or foe when it comes to protecting our democratic institutions and traditions.

They are questions that could play a key role in the Oct. 19 federal election.

Already, the parties are pursing voters who fear for the future of our democracy. To that end, Harper’s Conservatives recently unveiled an “action plan on open government” that they hope will convince voters in October that they are serious about reform.

Meanwhile, both the New Democrats and Liberals are talking big about the need to shore up our democracy. It may be just talk, though, because both parties failed miserably when they had the chance during the 2006-2011 minority government years to work together to force Harper to get serious about democratic reform.

On the positive side for Harper, his initial reform act and other decisions have increased accountability in about 30 ways, according to Duff Conacher, founder of Democracy Watch, a respected non-partisan organization that focuses on democratic reform.

Among the moves were the creation of a parliamentary budget officer, an expansion in the scope of the Access to Information Act to cover more Crown corporations and federal agencies, and the establishment of the office of conflict-of-interest and ethics commissioner to watch over MPs.

But Conacher believes that overall the Harper Tories have failed to live up to their promises. He feels the situation is so bad that a new accountability act is required regardless of which party wins in October.

Conacher cites nearly 30 cases of broken Harper promises, eight moves that weakened government accountability and some 100 cases of ignoring loopholes and flaws in the accountability system. In addition, Harper hasn’t even bothered to respond to the 2010 Oliphant Commission, which looked into the controversial dealings between businessman Karlheinz Schreiber and former prime minister Brian Mulroney. The commission made four recommendations to close ethics rules loopholes and 14 proposals to increase ethics enforcement.

The Harper government’s enforcement of democratic rules and accountability is so weak that it’s “a scandal,” Conacher said this week.

For example, the Tories removed a rule requiring ministers, their staff and senior government officials to “act with honesty” and failed to strengthen enforcement for unethical activities.

Also, the Harper government slashed funding to some citizen groups working on democracy and human rights issues, broke a promise to protect and compensate whistleblowers properly, and refused to ensure full independence of and an adequate budget for the very parliamentary budget office that it established.

In addition, the Conservatives have broken almost all their promises for open government and to bolster the Access to Information Act.

The latest instance came just last month when Treasury Board President Tony Clement admitted Ottawa “has run out of time” to review Canada’s Access to Information Act before the October election. The act hasn’t been updated since it was introduced 35 years ago and Clement didn’t say why the Conservatives have done nothing about it since they took power in 2006.

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Clearly, the coming election will be critical for Canadians worried about the state of our democracy and hoping for honest, ethical and open government.

That’s because this election will give voters a chance to decide whether Harper has been a friend or foe of democracy.

Bob Hepburn’s column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

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