This paper tests the validity of arguments in favour, and against, the establishment of an independent ethics "watchdog" in Ottawa by comparing the experience of other jurisdictions with the regulation of ethics in politics. This suggests that neither the independent prosecutor model, nor the Auditor General, provide accurate examples to describe attempts at designing institutions for enforcing ethics in Westminster democracies. The Office of the Ethics Counsellor is a case of flawed institutional design, as is the new commissioner that the ethics bill tabled in October 2002 proposes to create.