Excerpt:
My intent in writing the book was three-fold:
- First, provoke an informed discussion on the relationship between the government and the public service, and the challenges that both the government and the public service faced in implementing major changes in government policies.
- Secondly, provide some context for the “friends and enemies” language with respect to public servants. The Conservative government came in with a strong conservative ideology, in addition to viewing itself as an “outsider”. Meanwhile, most public servants had a middle of the road, small “l”, liberal ideology, evidenced by the fact that we choose government work because we largely believe that government can be a force for good.
- Thirdly, I hoped to show that there are no heroes or villains here. Both sides are sincere in their belief of the public good and in their desire to build a stronger Canada. But fundamental distrust on both sides, disagreements over what is the public good and a stronger Canada, made us sometimes lose sight of that common interest.
Read the whole thing here.
And have a look at Andrew's blog: here.
