Serving Canadians used to be the primary function of public servants -- increasingly, it looks like they’re most interested in serving themselves (The Line)

Fearless advice. Loyal implementation.

Once upon a time, that was a mantra that mattered, one which public servants lived by, respected by both themselves and their political “masters.” It was instilled in me early in my public-service career. I was fortunate enough to begin my working life at the “centre of government,” the Privy Council Office, which is responsible for coordinating all activities across the vast federal government. My first boss, Maurie Jorre-de-St. Jorre (an anglophone from BC!) and Mario Laguë, the assistant secretary to the cabinet for communications and consultation (the most senior communications position in government), both stressed the relationship between service satisfaction and satisfaction with government.

The statistical model we developed excluded the governing party because that was politics. What we were concerned with was direct services to Canadians, and how that drove satisfaction with government. Of course, the governing party matters, but even controlling for that, we found the “service satisfaction” relationship to be statistically strong 25 years ago. Today, it seems everyone has forgotten this relationship, and what the federal public service should be up to in the first place, which is serving the public ...

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