It had to be said

 With the Trudeau mess swirling incessantly, I had to write a letter to 'The Globe and Mail' to remind people of how government used to -- and still should -- operate.  I am delighted it was published today -- the first one of six on the same subject.  Here it is:

 Actually, I submitted two, but the other singled out my experience as DG of Communications in Customs and Excise (before it was unwisely dumped into Revenue Canada, by then DM Pierre Gravelle); they chose to run the more generic explanation.  

When the Conservatives were in power under Mulroney, B and I went to a cocktail party hosted by a partisan aide who worked for a very powerful minister whose task it was to sideline, or get rid of, all public servants the Conservatives deemed too "Liberal".  When introduced to this aide, he asked me what I did.  Upon telling him I was DG of Communications for Customs and Excise, he sneered and said, "Oh, you must be a Grit," turned on his heel and walked away.  He had no idea that public servants were forbidden to be partisan. 

This aide and his minister actually compiled lists of people to get rid of.  I kid you not!  That's the level pf paranoia that existed within Conservative ranks.  "Brian, I've seen the list and your name is on it," said a friend at a social gathering in his home.  I was shocked.  I also began to worry that taking B's name might not have been such a good idea afterall.  I had a high profile back then and the same moniker.  Should I have been worried?  

The hiving of power in the PMO for the promotion and protecting of the Queen (in this case Trudeau)  has continued from Trudeau the Elder's days and is still in full force.

When I worked at the Public Service Commission, I used to sit around the senior management table while the whole question of whether or not public servants could put up election signs was debated.  The answer was invariably "No".  That's how seriously the question of preventing partisanship in the public service was taken.

That is my whole point about the "separation of church and state".  The Globe also published another letter of mine in which I pointed this out as the reason the religion of secular leaders must not be known to voters.  It is also the reason Jagmeet Singh's turban should not be announcing his.  But it does.  No one seems to get this?

But back to my letter.  I am quite delighted and proud it has been published!  Just think of all the people who will read it:  Morneau, Freeland, Butts, Telford......they'll all know how they have tarnished and undermined a once great Federal Public Service.  My father, a renowned scientist at the NRC; my uncle, the deputy minister of both National Defence and Revenue Canada; past Clerks of the PCO, i.e., Gordon Robertson and his ilk, all are turning uncomfortably in their graves.