The only federal government that can truly be held accountable for its spending and actions is a Conservative government, leader Stephen Harper told cheering MPs as he announced a new accountability policy on Parliament Hill Friday.

"Cleaning up government begins at the top," Harper said in his election-style speech that repeatedly took aim at Paul Martin's Liberals.

He said that when he is prime minister, "politics will no longer be a stepping stone to a lucrative career lobbying government."

Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper

As he revealed his proposed Federal Accountability Act, Harper often referred to the mismanagement and patronage outlined in the Gomery commission's first report, released this week.

"This scandal did not happen because of bad public servants or poor auditors," he said of the sponsorship affair, in which tens of millions of dollars went to Quebec ad agencies for little or no work.

"It happened because of a culture of entitlement in the Liberal Party. And it happened because that party allowed the veils of secrecy to close around its actions."

The three main planks of Harper's proposed accountability act are:

  • Eliminating all remaining corporate and union donations to federal political parties, and restricting individual donations to $1,000 per person.
  • Banning all ministers and their political aides from becoming government lobbyists for at least five years from the date they leave their political positions.
  • Giving the auditor general the power to "follow the money to the end recipients" as she or he undertakes a review of the $30 billion handed out each year in the form of federal grants, contributions and contracts.

"We are going to change the way government works in Ottawa, not just change the colour of the letterhead," Harper said.

Harper was once a lobbyist: Brison

Reacting to Harper's announcement, Liberal Public Works Minister Scott Brison said he welcomed any contribution to the debate over how to make government work better.

He encouraged the Conservatives to forward their proposed act to Gomery as he begins to prepare his second report, on how to avoid a repeat of the sponsorship scandal.

Brison went on to say he found it "curious" that the Conservative leader was so critical of lobbyists given that "Mr. Harper operated for four years as an unregistered lobbyist, as head of the National Citizens Coalition."

The public works minister also said the coalition was charged with breaking Canada's Elections Act six times, and was convicted once in connection with third-party advertising laws.

Harper's group argued all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada that limits on ad spending by advocacy groups during election campaigns was an unreasonable limit on freedom of expression.

'I'm not here to join a club,' says Harper

In another part of his speech Friday, the Conservative leader also hinted that unlike former prime minister Jean Chrétien, who was a prominent target of blame in Gomery's report, he would not be a multiple-term prime minister.

Harper spoke about how admirable he finds it when people run for office, make a difference and then return to their normal lives.

"That is how I want my time in public office to be," Harper said. "I'm here to do a job. I'm not here to join a club. I'm not here to buy into a lifestyle."

The Conservatives have pledged to try to bring down Martin's minority government now that the Gomery report has been released.

The earliest date for a confidence vote is Nov. 15, though Harper has said he doesn't want to send Canadians to the polls during the Christmas holidays.

Poll has good news for Conservatives

The Conservatives' call for a quick election comes as a new poll conducted after the release of the Gomery report showed a leap in support for the party.

Of the 1,012 adults interviewed for the Ipsos-Reid poll Tuesday and Wednesday, 31 per cent said they would vote Liberal if an election were held now, compared to 30 per cent for the Conservatives, 19 per cent for the NDP and 13 per cent for the Bloc.

The Conservatives' support was four percentage points higher than in the last such poll, while the Liberal number was seven percentage points lower. NDP support rose by one percentage point. The Bloc, which runs candidates only in Quebec, surged by two percentage points.

The poll is considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20, but Harper wasn't putting too much weight on the good news Friday morning.

"Polls go up and polls go down," he told his Conservative audience.

Harper said that in order to win the next election, everyone in the party must "keep assuming we're behind."