New code of conduct introduced for political aides: Kathryn May

Good synopsis of the new code:

With the new code, ministerial staff must act with integrity and honesty, support the minister’s duties, be diligent and loyal to the minister, and work with the public service to support the minister.  When working with bureaucrats, they must:

• be aware of the ethical standards, guidelines and codes of conduct that public servants must comply with;
• stay out of departmental operations, including how money should be spent;
• not engage public servants in activity that breaches their ethical and legal obligations as non-partisan public servants;
• not direct or issue orders to public servants;
• not undermine or circumvent the authority of deputy ministers; and
• not suppress or alter advice that public servants prepare for ministers.

The code also calls for a separation between ministers’ social media accounts and those of the government. That’s long been the policy but the Conservatives were repeatedly called out for using the government’s communications machinery to promote partisan interests.

They made public servants refer to the Government of Canada as the Harper Government on all news releases and backgrounders.

In another case, departments were asked to send retweets promoting a family-tax measure not yet passed by Parliament, including a hashtag with the Conservative slogan #StrongFamilies. Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre had public servants work overtime to create promotional videos about child benefits, which featured him.

The government has two types of social media accounts – departmental and thematic accounts — which are targeted at specific topics or audiences. They are used to promote or advertise federal programs but can’t have identifying “party symbols” or partisan content.

The code allows ministers and parliamentary secretaries to have their own social media accounts, but won’t allow government resources to manage or create content for them.

Departments can’t tweet, retweet or link to the personal or political accounts of ministers. Ministers, however, can link or tweet content from Government of Canada websites.

Source: New code of conduct introduced for political aides | Ottawa Citizen