The ethics of governance

Three senior members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet have been found to be in violation of ethics rules in the past year — a list that includes the prime minister himself.

The latest Liberal in the hot seat is Dominic LeBlanc, the current intergovernmental affairs minister. Conflict of Interest Commissioner Mario Dion ruled this week that LeBlanc, in his former role as fisheries minister, violated conflict rules by awarding a lucrative fishing contract to a company set to be run by one of his wife's first cousins. He was not fined.

So do the conflict of interest rules need to be more clear? That is the question The House host Chris Hall put to Lori Turnbull, director of the School of Public Administration at Dalhousie University.

"There's usually somebody, and usually more than one somebody, who finds themselves on the wrong side of conflict of interest regulations at some point," Turnbull said.