A political scientist says Cape Breton Regional Municipality council members who accepted donations during last fall's election campaign are not in a conflict of interest.

But he says the public might see it that way and that's why he's calling for change.

"Now that we are early in a new mandate, it would be valuable, it would be a positive exercise for the CBRM council to initiate a serious and productive study of how we can do campaign financing reform in this community," said Cape Breton Unive…