It doesn't take long, does it?

It wasn't terribly long ago that the current prime minister was lambasting the former prime minister(s) for not allowing for the appointment of an ethics watchdog. In addition, Conservatives across the country have been complaining about a lack of ethics in government for god only knows how long. (Actually, since about 1993, before that they were oddly silent...)

And yet now, popular opinion among Conservatives, at least those that I've read and spoken to, seems to be that the ethics commissioner is a waste of money who should be scrapped. Of course, they say, it has nothing to do with the fact that they are now in government. No, they would never do something like that. Conservatives are the chosen people!

All sarcasm aside, isn't it about time conservatives stopped pretending to be paragons of ethical behaviour, and stopped using the tired old excuse that, "The Liberals are worse!" Oh you know the drill. A favourite of theirs is, "You're letting the perfect be the enemy of the good," a phrase they bandy about as if they invented it.

Sorry, but that's just not good enough. If you campaign on ethics in government, in the process painting every card-carrying Liberal member and average Liberal voter as immoral, unethical and apathetic towards corruption, and then as soon as you are elected break that promise, there's nothing "good" about that - that's just plain old hypocrisy. Let's remember, it took the Chretien government several years before it started to get arrogant and start showing signs of corruption. It took the Conservatives, what, a day? Just to offer some perspective.