What is the real cost of scandal? It is tempting to shout, “The Money!” — as in the hundreds of millions of our dollars wasted by the McGuinty Liberals in a desperate attempt to save their battered government, or the millions lavished on unentitled senators. Others would argue the damage to reputation is worse — as in permitting a crude, ignorant and truth-averse mayor to govern our largest city.

There is an even higher price.

The damage that these scandals do to public trust. Not since the dawn of universal suffrage in the established democracies have voters been more angry at their governors. Nor have so many citizens in so many countries acted on the bumper sticker exhortation: “Don’t Vote! It Only Encourages Them!”

But we are past joking about the cost of the behaviour of our entitled leadership elites. Some cynical political scientists say it doesn’t matter how many people vote — “Korea’s 100 per cent turnouts don’t make it more democratic,” they foolishly claim. But of course it does matter, in several dimensions.

It is easier to steal an election where four out of five citizens stay home — it costs less and requires little organization. Years of research in all the old democracies demonstrate that those who consistently turn out in times of declining participation are the angry, the haters, the zealots, the “wacko birds” in John McCain’s delightful parlance, Ford Nation in ours.

Before you descend to that level of voter defection, it is the young, the newcomer, the poor and the disconnected that stay home. It is surely not partisan to observe that a community governed by leaders chosen by the old, the rich and the angry is not likely to treasure our values of tolerance and inclusion as priorities.

What is so especially cruel about the tri-level scandals foisted on Ontario this year is their motivation. None of ours are simply another sad illustration of human weakness — a perhaps excusable sexual dalliance with a compromising partner, or an illicitly earned Mercedes. No, the Fords, the McGuintys and the Senators are guilty of a far more debilitating type of scandal — the abuse of public office, the breach of public trust for partisan gain.

That is what makes the price of these scandals so outrageous. Each is a direct attack on the foundation of trust that is essential to any democracy. Francis Fukuyama’s majestic study of successful societies, called simply “Trust,” offers powerful proofs of the price paid for a collapse in that trust. “A low (trust) society is not only likely to have small, weak and inefficient companies; it will also suffer from pervasive corruption of its public officials and ineffective public administration. … In Italy … there is a direct relation between social atomization and corruption as one moves from North … to South.”

Scarborough is not Sicily, and Canada remains at the top of global rankings for transparency and freedom from corruption. But as the cliché goes, “Protect your reputation, you only get one.” It is as true of societies as it is of senators. That is why what happens next in each of these cases is almost more important than the original insulting transgressions.

Those who enabled the scandals, those who looked the other way for far too long, need to help repair the damage they have done to their city, their province and their country. That is, not the staffers, nor their gormless supporters in the media and their parties — though they might want to take a long searching look into any nearby mirror. No, it is the leaders themselves, and their political peers who must own up to the damage they have caused, the price they have forced all of us to pay.

We don’t imprison politicians easily — though Canada remains the only old Commonwealth country to have had a serving cabinet minister in jail. We don’t even throw our political miscreants out of office as enthusiastically as many communities. But if a line is to be drawn under this year’s bonanza of bad behaviour, if we are to make clear that these are not the standards by which we expect Canada to be governed, then some symbolic closure is needed — and it can only come from those responsible. In Asia, public apology by political and corporate leaders is a given. Not insincere Fordite “oh-poor-me” apologies. A real, sincere, abject apology.

Imagine how much less damaged his historical reputation would be if our former premier could find it in himself to face a television camera and say, “I am solely responsible for a very serious error in judgment and in law made by my government for the least defensible of reasons. I accept responsibility for the loss of an unconscionable amount of taxpayers’ money, wasted in an effort merely to keep my government in office.

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“I do not ask your forgiveness for this monumental lapse on my part. I do ask you to accept my deep and sincere apology. And I offer this pledge: I will never stop telling everyone in a position of public trust how critical it will be to their reputations to avoid the kind of mistake I made.”

Robin V. Sears is a Principal of Earnscliffe, was National Director of the NDP and has been eyewitness to political scandal for four decades on three continents.

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