The Public Servant’s Guide to Government in Canada
Alex Marland & Jared J. Wesley
I’ve worked with government clients for a long time, spanning everything from municipal communications and IT teams, on through provincial and federal design, advertising, and tech programs. I’ve learned a lot about how teams and systems interact within the public service, but there was always a bit of a gap in my knowledge about the baselines of all these interactions.
This book was the recommendation that floated to the top after a weekend of research—The Public Servant’s Guide to Government in Canada has become an often-recommended resource for students looking to enter into the world of Canadian public service. And, after reading, I can understand why.
Here are a few of the lines that stuck with me the most:
“Citizens publicly complaining and demanding change is a hallmark of a free society.”
More than anything, this was just a nice reminder of what folks working in the public service are taught. After all, I can say that I’ve yet to work with a member of the public service that didn’t seem to appreciate this principle, even if it stung sometimes.
“That works well in practice, but does it work in theory? — a running punch line among public servants working on complex, time-sensitive files.”
While this was a cute moment of humour in an otherwise fairly serious section, it also speaks volumes to the reality of working in policy development and communications. Reconciling process, theory, and philosophy with the shifting needs of the day can be a tall order, and I’ve definitely seen the two things lead to a clash that resolves in a standstill. It’s a good note to always keep in mind: sometimes, the theory gets built from the practice, and not the other way around.
“Public servants must separate their own personal agenda from the government’s agenda. Public servants do not have the right to determine what is in the public’s interest, or to judge what makes for good public policy.”
On paper, this sounds like the most difficult thing you could ask of a public servant. But, I’ve seen brilliant people reconcile this with a simple, direct reasoning: you can localize yourself to execution, and hold your ethical line directly with the output of your own processes. It becomes a lot like the platonic ideal of a chair: you focus on crafting that ideal chair, and not focusing on who will sit in it.
“The possibility that emails, briefing materials, and handwritten notes will be released through a freedom of information request means that some public servants are hesitant to provide frank advice.”
This, to me, was one of the most cutting lines from the book. It’s not that this was necessarily new information, so much as it was a stark prompt to recognize the reality that public servants find themselves in. My takeaway here was to operate with more understanding whenever a call or a meeting was requested over a note or a document.
“Broadly speaking, political acumen amounts to the intersection of four key elements—knowledge of power, situational awareness, soft skills, and ethics of public service.”
This line comes from a description of the political acumen required of a successful public servant. But, it’s applicable far beyond that. A version of this same description is true for nearly any role, and it’s typically the hardest thing to screen for, and even harder to teach. Whether in an agency, an office, or a team, how do we equip entry-level roles to build their knowledge of the power structures and enhance their situational awareness?
While a lot of this book was geared towards students of government, and those looking to enter into roles as public servants, there was plenty of thoughtful content for an agency man like myself who operates adjacent to (and in service of) the target audience. It’s a helpful, insightful look into the foundations of what it means to consider oneself a public servant, all of which are great reminders for what it means to support, participate, and build that body of work as a collaborator.
For me, that’s an easy 3 / 4 Zaqirs.
