After two years of minority government, this province has rewritten the rules of parliamentary democracy.

The new playbook? An “open book” approach to government communications:

Now, virtually any email is searchable, any document disclosable. A milestone in open government, it’s a millstone for the Liberal government.

By teaming up to outvote the minority Liberals in the legislature, the two opposition parties have forced the government to hand over hundreds of thousands of items. Such is the fallout from the costly cancellation of two gas-fired power plants before the last election.

The damning correspondence reveals the base cunning of Liberal staffers, the opposition keeps crowing. But what if everyone’s confidential emails — including the dark and dreary secrets of Tories and New Democrats — also became public? (More on that later.)

The opposition was looking for proof of criminality or corruption. All they got, however, was reconfirmation of the self-evident political cynicism harboured by a party in power.

Having pounced on a series of crass and boastful emails from former premier Dalton McGuinty’s inner circle, the Tories are now poised to gum up the legislature again when it resumes next week. But after a year of wild goose chases — tying up dozens of government officials to scan millions of documents in hopes of yielding a few more titillating and embarrassing email tales — it’s time to ask:

Aren’t there more important challenges facing MPPs, beyond getting bogged down in the email entrails of the gas plant cancellations? A report by the auditor-general last March laid bare the boondoggles — and the tripling of costs to nearly $600 million. Another report next month will push the totals even higher. That’s the bigger story.

By obsessing over which little-known Liberal aide said what boastful or impolitic things to another Liberal apparatchik, or how McGuinty lowballed the costs (surprise!), the opposition has lost the scent. The auditor-general’s office is more wisely following the money.

Open Government is not a bad thing. But you can have too much of a good thing, which is why Tory and NDP MPPs should beware what they wish for:

Open Opposition, for example. Imagine if, instead of just snooping through confidential government correspondence, we could see the opposition’s inner thoughts, too?

Like the email from an NDP staffer to party leader Andrea Horwath last month, which reveals just how much her staff tries to script her. Policy advisor Alex Callahan accidentally copied his confidential memo to journalists:

Marked “INTERNAL/Not for Distribution,” it highlights the “Key Messages” fed to Horwath. On the latest Liberal auto insurance plan, Horwath is instructed: “We cannot truthfully say they’ve broken a promise.”

That’s a “key message” the Liberals will keep in hand for their next Question Period debate — which is perhaps why political operators prefer to keep their private advice private.

Nor were the Tories happy to read their own internal correspondence, published by the Star’s Richard J. Brennan, detailing a caucus split over a controversial new labour law. Written by maverick MPP Randy Hillier, the email cites caucus debate about obtaining financial favours from construction giant EllisDon (for helping it get around a contractual obligation to hire union workers), and his warnings to party leader Tim Hudak:

“In Caucus, it was stated quite explicitly that following a successful Ellis Don fundraiser for Tim, our Party would continue to benefit financially with the advancement of this Legislation. I am genuinely concerned that we may be walking on very thin ice or potentially violating Section 41 of the Legislative Assembly Act” (which prohibits financial gain for enacting laws; EllisDon denies any impropriety).

Unsurprisingly, the Tories are clamming up because, ah, these emails are not intended for the public’s eyes. Privately, they are mortified by the leak and have mounted a witch h7unt for the whistleblower.

Surely, though, the Tories are not frantically trying to ferret out any awkward correspondence emanating from their own MPPs’ accounts? Nor would they be deleting any incriminating emails that might be relevant should the OPP or the integrity commissioner decide to investigate Hillier’s warning of a Section 41 breach by his own party? As the Tories keep telling us, no one is supposed to delete emails, because that would be rewriting the rulebook.

Email hypocrisy, however, is only half the story. The bigger challenge, highlighted by Hillier’s email, is the continued acceptance of corporate and union donations in this province long after the federal Parliament (and even Toronto city hall) banned them.

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For a minority legislature that revels in huffing and puffing and plotting over private emails and open government, here’s how to make our politics truly transparent: Rewrite the rules to close off money from powerful corporations and big unions.

Election finance reforms would be a far more enduring achievement for a minority legislature that prefers to chase its own tail in pursuit of email trails.

Martin Regg Cohn’s provincial affairs column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. mcohn@thestar.ca , Twitter: @reggcohn

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