Political staff in parliamentary government.

AuthorStos, Will
PositionCanadian Study of Parliament Group Seminar - Conference notes

From backbenchers, to cabinet ministers to first ministers, parliamentarians rely on the assistance of political staff to fulfill their role's many responsibilities. Yet staffers' roles in parliamentary democracy are not well understood. Noting the growing number of ministerial staffers and a similar growth in the perception of their influence over government decision-making, on March 18, 2016, the Canadian Study of Parliament Group convened a seminar featuring two panels of current and former political staff, public servants and academics to examine the role of staffers and their interactions with the public service. Panelists were also asked if they believed reforms were required to address the unique position that political staff hold in relation to parliamentary government.

First Panel

David Zussman, a University of Ottawa professor of public sector management and author of Off and Running: The Prospects and Pitfalls of Government Transitions in Canada, told the audience that previous research he had conducted for the OCED revealed other jurisdictions were having similar conversations of concern about the growing role of political staff. Calling the topic, "a legitimate and important area of study because it raises some very significant governance issues," Zussman explained that political staff play a complementary role to public servants and they are not necessarily in competition with each other.

Using a prime minister's staffing as an example, Zussman outlined three models to illustrate how this relationship can work in practice. A collaborative model would find the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Privy Council Office (PCO) discussing and debating ideas together which would be presented to a prime minister. A triangular model would see the PMO and PCO work beside each other and not together to propose actions. Finally, a gatekeeper model would find the PCO working through the PMO to get advice through to a prime minister. All three models have been present in Canada, he told attendees, and no one model is better than another.

Calling political staff more knowledgeable than ever before, Zussman noted that the public service, which used to generate ideas, is now more geared towards implementation and it no longer has a monopoly on input into policy. Turning his attention to possible reforms, the professor stated that the appointment process of political staff did bother him. Governments tended to make very quick appointments following an election--especially if they were not expecting to win. Fie suggested that employing something like the Public Service Commission to facilitate the process would bring some more order to hiring and ensure a public posting of job descriptions. Zussman also noted that the federal Accountability Act had done away with 'priority status' for former political staffers transitioning into the public service. Fie argued that it was a mistake to eliminate this status because many bright public servants who had started as partisan staff in the past were always hired at the appropriate levels.

Presenter Liane Benoit, Founder and Principal at Benoit and Associates, first began studying the history of political staff for the Gomery...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT