Duff Conacher jumps the shark?

Duff Conacher is a very nice guy (I remember him from his days as a camp counsellor) and he does superb work with Democracy Watch.

But what's with his call for lie detector tests for politicians? It's the kind of whacked-out idea that gets you media coverage -- but not necessarily the good kind. Politicians lie. But, as any of us with kids know, sometimes an untruth is not a lie. Like yesterday. We said we'd make pizza for dinner, but circumstances made it hard for us to do that. So we had leftovers and decided to have pizza tonight. Our seven-year-old was outraged. Had we lied? In his eyes, yes. To most adults, no.

I appreciate a politician who sticks to his guns -- but not to the point of stupidity. Duff's efforts to make our democracy more transparent are extremely commendable. I hope he doesn't keep mucking them up with proposals like this one, that are a little harder to take seriously.