CKNW Editorial
for July 18, 2001

First of all let me apologize for the uneven to say the least posting on my website,www.rafeonline.com. The answer is simple - our server has been down much of the time making posting impossible. I understand that Dowco is fixing this and I can only ask for your patience in the meantime.

I received a letter yesterday morning criticizing me for not dumping all over the Liberals for firing NDP boards and appointing their own friends in their place. I was even criticized for not beating up on the government for appointing Ted Smith, former manager and president of CKNW, former top executive of the WIC Corporation on the grounds that I was playing favourites. Evidently this writer didn't know that we have not been run by WIC for a couple of years and are in fact owned by a subsidiary of Shaw Cable - who have, I might add, that nauseating ad on the air featuring that dreadful little brat who goes on about his internet access.

But down to business.

In assessing government appointments it is well to consider what appointments we are talking about. Some boards, commissions or crown corporations implement government policy and under a democracy government policy is set by the elected politicians of the day. Some appointments are to the public service who have, traditionally, been above politics and there to give independent advice to government. Some are statutory boards who perform a statutory duty and some are volunteers doing a public service.

Some, like ministerial assistants are meant to be political in nature and in that I include the advisers within a premier's office.

Let's deal first with Crown corporations, boards and the like. We all criticize when party faithful flood the boards of ICBC, BC Hydro and the like and the criticisms are partly though only partly justified. These kinds of organizations in addition to running a business, implement government policy. Because of that it must be expected that governments will appoint friends not enemies to the Board of Directors which, after all, is not supposed to run the company but make policy – or in the case of Crown Corps and the like, transmit government policy. Where this system goes awry is when the political appointment is incompetent and somehow gets into administration.

It is utterly indefensible for governments to appoint party hacks to the bureaucracy. This was done to a fare-the-well by the NDP. I don't suppose that any government in recent history has been absolutely clean in this regard but for the most part, the various Social Credit governments deserve high marks for relying on public servants promoted through the ranks or recruited on a non political basis.

During the Barrett years the NDP stratagem was not to appoint NDP hacks to the bureaucracy - though they did that too - but to create a political position sort of off to one side through which the cabinet could work their ways without fear of being put off by non partisan advice. The last bunch didn't bother with this technicality and simply loaded up the top third or more of the government with friends.

Now let me digress. There is nothing wrong with a deputy minister having had some involvement with a government. One of my very able deputies had been executive assistant, a political position, to a federal Liberal Cabinet Minister. The point was he was not in a position to be paid off by my government for past political services because he had rendered none. Indeed, the NDP opposition of that day raised not a murmur about his appointment. It's a very subjective matter indeed.

The positions of executive assistant, deputy to the Premier and a few positions like it are intended to be political and when the government falls they don't even bother to wait for their notice.

While it is the glamorous appointments that get the attention, we would be better to look at the lesser known boards which perform pretty routine stuff and often get hefty per diems. Again, you have to be careful because there are a lot of boards run by volunteers. Moreover, some boards by their nature are going to attract people who have a known political bent. For example, a public governor of the Vancouver Stock Exchange might be expected to have a business background and thus probably not have voted for the NDP. Similarly, there are boards dealing in areas of social policy which naturally attract people of a left wing persuasion.

Now to the new appointments by the Liberal government. Frankly I don't know enough about them to make much comment. I assume that the opposition will let us know of any defects. I suspect there will be a combination of political payoff and a desire for competent people to implement government policy. What the government should get credit for is examining all these positions to see whether or not they are necessary. What then of the overall question of political appointments?

In some places like Nova Scotia I’m told, even the highway crews change the morning after the election. That is a bad thing, clearly. Stacking the public service with political pals is wrong - indeed having politics as a criterion for appointment to the public service is a denial of the independence they are supposed to bring to their job. A top bureaucrat ought to be able to serve whatever political party wins an election. What you will also see on a change of government is a change of outsiders that advise the government. Law firms, accounting firms, PR outfits, advertising agencies will nearly all go to friends. This is political patronage that goes on everywhere. That doesn't make it right but I have never seen any political party try seriously to change this.

What also never changes is the outrage expressed by parties in opposition when political hacks are appointed ... also unchanging is the quickness with which highly critical oppositions play the game once they're elected.

Whatever this government does – and I concede that greater sins by others provide no excuse – is dwarfed by their federal counterparts. After all, how could any government, anywhere, any time, top making Lou Sekora a full time Citizenship Court Judge thus requiring unsuspecting, upright decent new Canadians to call him "Your Honour".