A Washington-based think tank which assesses democratic good governance and anti-corruption practices in 55 countries has Canada tied for fourth among the top tier of countries with strong governance and strong anti-corruption practices.
That’s the good news. The bad news? Canada has lousy judicial accountability. Researchers gave low marks for judicial accountability because a) the executive branch of government controls appointments to the judiciary andb) there are no rules governing gifts and hospitality offered to judges.
Canada was also docked points because it has no national ombudsman.
But Canada was among the top-ranked countries for political financing. Researchers paid particular note to recent reforms by both the last Liberal government and the current Conservative government to limit campaign donations and force disclosures of contributors.
Canada also scored very well on executive accountability — the fact that the prime minister and cabinet has to answer to the House of Commons.
Canada scored 81 out of a possible 100 points on an annual index prepared by non-profit group Global Integrity which looks at more than 300 factors in each country, including things like media freedom, law enforcement accountability, voter participation and whistle-blower protection. Global Integrity designed the study while Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch was the lead Canadian researcher.
Canada was not ranked in the 2006 index.
The top score on the index was achieved by the United States and, perhaps surprisingly, by Bulgaria, a former Soviet Bloc country. Latvia and Romania, two other former Communist countries, also scored as well or better than Canada. Researchers said perception of those countries lags noticeably behind reality. They say that, particularly in the case of Romania and Bulgaria, massive democratic reforms have been forced upon former Soviet Bloc countries in order to achieve membership in the European Union, NATO, or other international groups.
Here are the top 10 with their index scores out of 100:
1. United States & Bulgaria – 87
3. Latvia – 84
4. CANADA, Spain, Japan, Italy, Romania – 81
9. Costa Rica – 79
10. France – 78
The group said three countries had shown significant improvement since 2006. They are Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, and Nepal.
Three countries slipped significantly. They are Uganda, Nigeria and Georgia.