Civic politics should be civil: Reforming responsible conduct in British Columbia's local governments
Date
2026
Authors
Williams, Rhys
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Abstract
The responsible conduct of elected officials is a foundational component of effective local governance. In recent years, local governments in BC have experienced a rise in cases of misconduct from elected officials. Misconduct includes a wide range of examples. This can include anything from engaging in bullying and harassment of municipal staff to failing to disclose a conflict of interest.
Challenges associated with misconduct can have broad implications such as creating division, eroding trust, and impacting collaborative decision-making processes. In turn, this dysfunction can impact the ability of a local government to deliver essential services to its community and ultimately affect the public’s confidence in their elected officials and government. Addressing the underlying factors contributing to these issues and identifying solutions is essential to improving effective local governance in BC.
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the approaches for promoting and maintaining the responsible conduct of locally elected officials in BC. By exploring academic and grey literature on responsible conduct and good governance, legislative framework models, available BC codes of conduct, and case studies on specific BC local governments, this research seeks to identify solutions to BC’s responsible conduct issues to enhance good local governance. The findings from this research aim to benefit the Province of British Columbia in implementing a provincial framework model that supports an environment of good governance and responsible conduct amongst the provinces locally elected officials.
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Keywords
Local Government, Responsible Conduct, Code of Conduct, Good Governance, British Columbia, Misconduct