Carleton University in Ottawa has received a metaphorical black eye in its attempt to keep secret the details of an agreement that created its one-year Master’s degree in Political Management. The program was brokered by former Reform Party leader Preston Manning and funded by Calgary oil magnate Clayton H. Riddell. After a year of stonewalling, Carleton was ordered by the information and privacy commissioner of Ontario to adhere to a request by Canadian Press to make the agreement public.

It turns out that the Riddell Foundation gets to appoint two of five people to the program’s steering committee. The university also appoints two members and Manning acts as the chair. That committee has what Canadian Press describes as “sweeping power” over the program’s budget, academic hiring, its executive director and curriculum. In publicity surrounding its launch in 2010, the program was described as “cross-partisan” in nature, but people with political connections to Manning are prominent on both the steering committee and the academic staff.