The public spanking of B.C.’s 85 MLAs for shoddy expense tracking and hidden Legislature finances has paid off: the Legislature will open its books and its secretive management committee meetings to the taxpayers footing the bill. 

This is long overdue—and incredibly welcome—news.

Kudos to Auditor General John Doyle, whose tough, principled stand last week finally provoked enough embarrassment among these politicians to get them to act. 

The devil, as always, will be in the details. Will the MLAs actually post every receipt—as Toronto City Hall, the gold standard in Canadian political accountability, does? Rest assured: the Canadian Taxpayers Federation will be pushing hard for total transparency from these MLAs.