It is not everyday I find myself in agreement with former PM Jean Chretien but this is one of them.

As he said, the PM not some subordinate non-elected functionary is responsible for the ethical standards and conduct of the government.

And the ultimate arbiter of how well the PM is discharging this obligation is a body called the electorate.

In Chretien's case, the electorate assessed the Sponsorship Scandal and decided the PM's discharge of this obligation left much to be desired and so made the federal Liberals go stand in the corner for a decade.

In regard to the current creative semantic gyrations of the PM and his finance minister and others to shift the responsibility for ethical conduct from the PM and his cabinet members to the ethics commissioner, there can be no better argument as to the need to abolish this impossible position and put full ethical responsibility back on the shoulders of the PM and his ministers.

Anybody remember ministerial responsibility?