Democracy Watch is searching for a new co-ordinator because its founder Duff Conacher is departing after 17 years with the organization.
Formed in 1993 by Conacher, Democracy Watch follows a 20-step mandate focusing on steps to empower Canadians as voters, citizens, taxpayers, consumers of information and services and as shareholders of the private and public wealth.
He will leave Democracy Watch at the end of the month, but will stay active with the organization.
“I am leaving the full-time position,” he says, “but I am going to remain as a board member. I have done all the same things a thousand times and I want to do something different.”
Conacher, 47, is a former Ralph Nader Raider; he worked as an intern with Nader in 1986 on drinking water issues. He returned to Canada and was University of Toronto law school graduate in 1993 before starting Democracy Watch.
He will leave Ottawa to help a friend start up a foundation in Toronto dealing with government accountability, which he hopes will take him through until the fall. He has not decided what he will do after that.
Conacher and other board members hope to start the interviewing candidates for Conacher’s job this month and hope to have a successor in place in May.
Conacher says he will help the person become comfortable with the position and will assist with the federal election, including the organization of election report cards.
He also said that the next 10 years are laid out unless politicians start taking the issues seriously.
Conacher says all levels of Canadian government have a number of loopholes that allow politicians to avoid dealing with important issues. He says this leads to unethical government practices.
“Politicians are reluctant to clean up their own politics,” he says. “They need to clean up the loopholes.”
He says that Democracy Watch has achieved more than 110 changes in provincial and federal law.