A leading contender for mayor has made telling the truth a major plank in his campaign after a troubling four years in council.
Roger Caranci released the honesty, integrity and trust plank of his platform Wednesday, but some say being honest with the public should go without saying.
"[If] somebody committed fraud or did something in their past, would they be comfortable with that person sitting on [or] in council?"
Caranci is calling for initiatives to target politicians who behave badly including; monthly publicized expenses, police checks for candidates, no YouTube channels on the public dime and better training for council rookies.
He would also like to see an integrity commissioner or expansion of the powers of the province's closed meeting investigator.
"It's the ombudsman who doesn't cost the London taxpayer directly any money. Integrity commissioner - you can see the example Toronto it costs $150,000 a year. I don't think that would be much different for the City of London, so you've got to weigh those options."
But Western University political science professor Andrew Sancton says more isn't necessarily better when it comes to formal oversight.
"Each time we have more rules and regulations and formal expectations about what people should be doing it leads to more grey areas, more complications and disputes, and more issues about who is going to be referee."
But just saying you're in favour of honesty and integrity may not be enough for a cynical voting public.
Mayoral candidate Paul Cheng says vowing to tell the truth shouldn't have to be an election platform.
"Jobs number one. If you want to degenerate this debate into 'I'm more honest than you. I have more integrity than you,' you shouldn't even be in the race...I'm assuming all 15 [candidates] will be honest with the best interest of Londoners at heart. That's why you're doing it.
