24
FMI
*
IGF JOURNAL
VOLUME 25, NO. 2
CHALLENGING ISSUES FOR CANADIAN LEADERS
elements for an effective Service. Some
of them sound familiar: that it draw
talent from all parts of society; that it
be free from political bias; that there be
“security of tenure” (job security); that
it be anonymous, not advertising its
work but carrying out policies decided
by the people’s representatives; that it be
regarded as “one of the most honourable
of all pursuits” so it can attract the “best
and brightest”.
He appealed to young people who
were considering their careers while at
university, to consider public service.
He spoke about the importance for a
democracy of having a non-partisan,
expert civil service, “independent of
the ups and downs of party strife”. But
being a Member of Parliament was also
a form of public service, and still then
“[had] a notable prestige”. There can
be, however, “baser elements” such as
personal ambition, in the motivation to
enter politics. But where able individuals
of high ideals came to see politics as “an
unclean thing”, not only do parliaments
suffer but so too does the civil service.
In some democracies, he told an
audience at the University of Manitoba,
with the “combination [of] discredited
politics and glorified business, it was
impossible to enlist the best talent in the
country’s service.” The lesson was that
“if we neglect the State for our private
interests there will most certainly come
a day when this neglect will react most
seriously upon those private interests
themselves.”
Buchan’s
concern
with
good
administration, good governance and
the basic principles underpinning
Western Civilization — freedom, reign
of law, and representative government
—was evident. As the 1930s progressed,
those basic principles were increasingly
threatened from dictatorial ideologies.
Indeed, by the time Buchan, as Lord
Tweedsmuir, arrived in Canada on
November 2nd, 1935, freedom and
representative forms of government had
vanished from much of the European
continent. There was a critical need
to defend and strengthen the basic
principles and to reinforce the institutions
of government so it could function
effectively and be better prepared to
address the serious issues confronting it.
Machinery of government
A littlemore thanamonthafter his arrival
in Canada from Britain, Tweedsmuir
recognized that Prime Minister
MackenzieKing’s schedule andworkload
raised concerns about his health, and
about the efficient administration of his
office and government more generally.
Tweedsmuir offered to assist, wanting to
create time so they could discuss matters
“that concern our peace”, alluding to the
deteriorating international situation.
Tweedsmuir outlined for Mackenzie
King the British practice that he
thought might be useful for comparative
purposes, and then provided “suggestions
for a position of
Chef du Cabinet
”. The
proposed position would head the
Prime Minister’s office, with assistants
to schedule the Prime Minister’s day,
make all appointments and deal with
correspondence, the most important of
which would be prepared by the head.
Significantly, Tweedsmuir emphasized,
the
Chef du Cabinet
“should never
accompany the P.M. on tour, or to
political meetings [which] should be
the task of a political secretary chosen
from the members of the House.”
The
Chef du Cabinet
would also be the
Prime Minister’s ‘intelligence officer’,
identifying what the PM should read,
monitoring the press and preparing
memos on ‘special questions’ of which he
should be informed. Lastly, the individual
in this position would be the principal
liaison officer with all departments,
including External Affairs (for which the
PM was responsible in those days).
Tweedsmuir subsequently consulted
with Burgon Bickersteth from the
University of Toronto who had
produced a study, at Mackenzie King’s
request in the late 1920s, of the British
Cabinet Office. King did nothing with
the study and kept his two clerical
assistants. Bickersteth was cynical,
writing that public figures failed to
surround themselves with “really able
assistants”, almost as if they “were
suspicious of brains in this capacity.”
The distinct functions prescribed by
Tweedsmuir would later evolve into
two offices. The first two functions
evolved into the Prime Minister’s
Office, while the third relates to what
we know as the Clerk of the Privy
Council and Secretary to the Cabinet.
Mackenzie King, frustratingly again,
did nothing for over two years, until
his health became a critical issue.
Finally, in July 1938, King offered the
position of Principal Secretary to the
Prime Minister to Arnold Heeney, a
lawyer from Montreal. They had first
met five years earlier when Heeney
accompanied his father, a prominent
Anglican minister (an important
point for King), who King knew and
who visited the Prime Minister each
summer at Kingsmere. In all of this,
Tweedsmuir’s role helped shape a key
part of Canada’s modern machinery of
government, helping it keep up with
the complexities of governing a modern
industrial society.
National unity
Tweedsmuir worried about the lack of
loyalty to Canada itself. It was the strong
regionalism he observed and its negative
effect on national unity that drove him
“to be constantly on the road”, to the
detriment of his health. In his first
two years, he extended the meaning of
Canada’s motto (
a mari usque ad mare
)
and travelled from sea to sea to sea -- to
the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Arctic.
He instructed his staff to arrange visits
to smaller communities. There were
areas he visited that had never before
seen a Governor-General.
His extensive travels were a
considerable feat for its day when the
usual mode of distance transport was
