Prime Minister Stephen Harper has withdrawn his pick to lead the new public appointments commission after his candidate was rejected by a Commons committee.
The move effectively kills the commission, a key part of his new ethics package.
"Obviously I'm very disappointed with what I think is an irresponsible decision," Mr. Harper told reporters.
"Here you have a top CEO in the country and a number of his colleagues who are willing to work for nothing to clean up the appointments process.
"For partisan reasons, the other Opposition parties do not want to do that."
A Commons committee voted 6-5 against the appointment. The NDP had brought forward a motion calling former EnCana head Gwyn Morgan an "unsuitable" candidate, citing past comments made about immigration and low-wage earners.
Mr. Harper said the Tuesday's vote signals that "we won't be able to clean up the process in this minority Parliament."
"We'll obviously need a majority government to do that in the future. That's obviously what we'll be taking to the people of Canada at the appropriate time," he said as he headed into Parliament for question period.
He also said it's unlikely anyone else would come forward to seek the chair position "if the Opposition is just going to play partisan games with the process."
Mr. Morgan, who was president of Calgary-based EnCana Corp., was to take on the job for a salary of $1 per year.
The new role is a key plank in the Tories' accountability package and is supposed to create more transparency in major federal appointments.
With a report from Canadian Press