Investigating Ownership Values as a Catalyst of Financial Scandal in Canada's Public Sector

The February 2006 national election in Canada was driven by numerous political scandals rather than by a positive sense of what needs to be accomplished in Canada. The two key scandals were the events leading to the resignation of David Dingwall as president of the Royal Canadian Mint and the Sponsorship Program scandal that lead to the Gomery Inquiry. This article examines these two financial scandals to determine if they may have been driven by a shift from traditional democratic, public-sector values to the market-based, private-sector values of the New Public Management (NPM). It appears that the NPM played little role in these scandals, although the model of contracting out for government services bears some responsibility for the Sponsorship scandal because this tool was used to avoid transparency.