No, no, no SL. You have to read the fine print. You say “former government staffers” - what Harper meant was “minister’s aides.” You have to read the fine print when speaking Conservative. Didn’t you get your manual?

From the G&M Article:

“Those restrictions apply only to minister’s aides, however, and not to aides to backbench MPs, so those who worked for the Tories in opposition are not hampered by them.

And according to government spokesmen, the restrictions do not apply to the staff working in a minister’s parliamentary office rather than at the department the minister leads.”

This is what we call a gaping loophole, like something the size of the San Andreas Fault.

Actually it was treehugger who picked up on this one Peter D - basically all this does for me is reenforce the fact that the real difference between parties and governments is the colour of their ties…. the blue ties are in power now, but the people wearing them are still looking out for their buddies and applying the “government of the day” spin to daily events.

Add to that the problem that the rabid alcoholic’s family is comprised of factions, all of which have a different take on his behviour.

“He’s not drinking at all. You’re crazy.”

“Okay, he’s drinking, but that’s not really alcohol, per se, it has other ingredients in it, so you can’t call him an alcoholic, strictly speaking.”

“Okay, he’s drinking, but not nearly as badly as old Uncle Paul used to.”

“Of course he’s drinking. We knew he would when we gave him the keys. You actually BELIEVED us when we said he was dry?” (Incredulous, derisive laughter)

Either that or they just read it, like me. I have to agree with you guys, this IS a gaping faultline and will hopefully be addressed when Parliament starts debating the Accountability Act.

Frankly, I’d be happy if they reduced the cooldown time (I’m not in Ottawa, nor will I ever be so have no personal stake in this) to 1-2 years, but make it across the board. Initially, I agreed that it shouldn’t count for Opposition MPs, but of course, what happens when the Opposition becomes the gov’t, as we have here?

One could try to pick & choose, say exempting the Bloc or NDP as they’ll never be in gov’t but that would be politically incorrect, wouldn’t it?

What powers does the government have at this time to prevent the practice? If legislative change is required, we’ll have to wait for it. Presumably if Harper is serious about closing remaining loopholes, we should prepare to see more rats running down the hawsers before the ship sails.