Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Fired Bureaucrats

I saw on television today that the Liberal Party was hard at work providing a platform for three former bureaucrats to complain. One is furious that she was fired for overseeing a failed file, and another is upset that his contract expired and was not renewed. Are not all government jobs lifetime appointments? Once you work for the government, aren’t you entitled to lifetime employment? Nobody ever gets fired from government jobs, Garth Turner notwithstanding. More so it is exceptionally rare for someone to be fired and be happy about it.

The former chief executive at the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is upset that she was fired last year. Here I thought that Chalk River was a disaster that warranted the rolling of bureaucratic heads? It cost Lisa Raitt her job, and I would certainly expect others employed in the field of nuclear safety would also be terminated. By the way, Ignatieff was talking about this yesterday as though these dismissals had taken place in the present tense. This one took place last year. The Liberals also made it sound like all of them were fired, but the RCMP Complaints guy's contract expired and was not renewed.

I have no objection to the Reindeer games the Liberals are intent on playing this week. I do object to their assertion that the dismissal (and one non renewal) represents an evil subversion of democracy. Next thing we'll see is Bob Rae tabling legislation that nobody who works for the government can ever be fired. Let's make all government jobs lifetime appointments! Those are the kinds of laws you get from Rae Administrations.

PS: How much do you want to bet that one or more of these bureaucrats are on the Soloman Show today?

18 comments:

  1. Ha! 15 minutes into the Soloman show, there is the guy whose contract was not renewed!

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  2. One of Evan's first questions "is Stephen Harper showing disdain for democracy?"

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  3. Next question; "were you making too much noise and you're political masters were not happy about that?"

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  4. One of E-Solo's greatest weaknesses as a journalist (and there are many) is that when he thinks he is scoring partisan political points, he can't stop smiling.

    Do not watch the Soloman Show at home. The title of my first book could very well be "Watching the CBC so you don't have to!"

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  5. Now they are running the headline "HEALTH CARE IN FOCUS: is new Tory priority opportunistic?"

    This is not fair and balanced analysis.

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  6. I think it's very telling when so-called "independent" political appointees attend partisan events to complain about the government.

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  7. "I think it's very telling when so-called "independent" political appointees attend partisan events to complain about the government."

    Independent... like Bernard Lord? Should we assume that he is now a Liberal supporter because he is speaking at one of the Liberal forums this week??????

    But go on and attack the messenger all you want and ignore the message. I realize that that is pretty much all you folks have to go on when it comes to accountability, oversight and democracy.

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  8. Ted, don't post anonymous comments just so you can respond to them...

    And double check your semantics, I never said she ran operations at chalk river. You infered that's what I meant, when it is not what I said. Your accusations of journalistic malpractice will have to go on your own blog.

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  9. Ted I was not accusing you of posting an anonymous comment for the purpose of refuting it, I was merely stating please don't do it.

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  10. As a retired civil servant (as contrasted with the bureaucrats you have referenced) I can state unequivocally that bureaucrats forsook their sense of integrity for sake of a questionable security and once that security is threatened they then whine excessively about their supposed injury - all in proper sounding phrases about democracy and civil service and the like. Bottom line, sell your soul go to hell and have the decency not to whine about it.

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  11. I only watch The Michael Coren Show these days so thank you for watching the other crap for me. I do switch over during commercials though but that only serves to remind me why I don't want to watch the crap in the first place.

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  12. Oh yah, that Linda Keen,

    Parliament 'unanimously' voted to overrule Keen and ordered the reactor re-started.

    Unanimous, Parliament, every party decided she made a bad decision....then she got fired as President of the Commission.

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  13. ''Ted, don't post anonymous comments just so you can respond to them...''

    lol
    did he really do that Iceman?

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  14. Spector has a few words on Colvin's unpaid legal bills

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/spector-vision/

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  15. Since the count for the protesters at the various rallies included all men, women and children(holding signs) then a turnout of 22,000 out of 33,000,000 plus people in Canada can be called a dismal flop .
    As well remember some of those people at the rallies were curiosity seekers and not protesters.
    Spread 22000 across Canada is not that overwhelming either.

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  16. Keen also went to court over her dismissal. She lost.

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  17. Were there any defeated liberals there, are they upset they lost their gravy train. There are 70 such liberals out there from the last two elections. I bet it was never mentioned that the liberals voted Linda off the island, not just PMSH. And why wasn't a contract renewed. Big difference from being fired.
    How come every time the libs try something, info comes out to bite them in the rear.
    Will anyone ask Linda who fired her and with whose support that was done. Wonder if she realized her outrage would be all over the blogs that the liberals helped fire her.
    And Chalk River cost us all a lot of money, even when the libs knew it wouldn't work.
    Thank you Mr Iggy for reminding us of that fact.
    I sometimes wonder whose side he is on.
    Oh, and visit AAs blog today to see those outraged libs calling for doors to be open, in front of OPEN DOORS. Can't he get anything right.

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  18. Um, make stuff up much Mary?

    Linda Keen was not dumped or fired by the Libs. Her mandate was to enforce safety. She was not allowed to consider other issues. In fact, she properly suggested that the government may want to consider other issues since she could not.

    But they fired her anyway. At 11:00 the night before she was supposed to testify at a committee hearing. Where do you get this bs about her contract not being renewed. She was fired by Harper for doing her job just because Harper did not want the oversight. Her testimony was going to be damaging to him so he had her fired. Plain and disgustingly simple.

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