PS set to fight with Tories
Unions ready election battle
A federal scientist who wrote a folk song urging people to dump Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
A record 34 public servants given permission to seek a nomination and run in the election.
A federal prosecutor, refused permission to run, who took the government to court over it.
Federal unions campaigning against the Conservatives, and taking the government to court to stop it from imposing its sick- leave deal.
These have all opened a national debate about the political rights of public servants and what’s happening to the very nature of Canada’s neutral, anonymous and non-partisan public service.
And they raise questions about whether Canadians will see an allout war between the public service and the Conservatives as the election campaign heats up.
The popularity of Tony Turner’s song Harperman on the Internet has also exposed how social media is broadening the way public servants can get politically involved with such speed and permanence that the lines are being blurred between their private and public lives.
But the activity of the public servants themselves defies predictions by some that the Conservatives would have been the ones on the campaign offensive, exploiting the image of the privileged public servant. Some predicted the Conservatives would position themselves as prudent managers who would take on unions and rein in the $45-billion annual compensation bill for public servants.
Ian Lee, a business professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, was the most outspoken champion of this looming war on public servants. He predicted that reducing the cost of the public service would be the Conservatives’ new “law-and-order” agenda for the 2015 election.
Instead, “the tables have turned and the public service unions are going to war against the government,” Lee said.
“Before the writ was dropped, the unions were on the offensive to get their criticisms of the government out there … and I think they have been effective getting their views across.”
A month into the campaign, there has been not a peep about the public service from any party. Even Treasury Board President Tony Clement has gone underground on public service issues and hasn’t taken a jab at bureaucrats.
In fact, the unions are still waiting for the various political parties to reveal their positions on a list of public service issues, including cuts in services from coast guard to food inspection, investments in government science, collective bargaining rights, and the long-form census.
“Frankly we’ve been doing overtime defending public services from the Harper government’s attacks and that’s not right,” said PIPSC president Debi Daviau. “In any sane universe, it would be the government’s job to build and protect public services, not tear them down.”
Lee said the unions are taking a page out of the 2014 Ontario election playbook, when labour campaigned against then-Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak, which helped to keep the Liberals in power.
But Lee believes that will change now that Labour Day has past and the parties are gearing up their campaigns in advance of Oct. 19. He believes the Conservatives will ramp up their attack on public service pay and benefits and that the NDP and Liberals will be loathe to look appear soft on such a pampered group.
“I think they are keeping their powder dry and will roll out the heavy artillery in mid-September … and will run on a promise to reform sick leave as part of a larger reform of the public service,” Lee said.
Donald Savoie, Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance at the University of Moncton, says Turner’s folksy Harperman song is throwing the spotlight on the divide between politics and public service and could put the role of the public service more broadly on the national agenda for the first time in decades.
He said the song drives home that something is wrong with the relationship between the public service and politicians.
“This guy Turner has launched the debate, and it is catching fire, so let’s have it. I happen to think the traditional view works best and I don’t want a partisan public service,” said Savoie who has widely written on the problems with the public service and has pressed for a national review of its role.
With the popularity of Harperman, Lee said, the Conservatives will want to change the “change the narrative” of public servants being suppressed and treated poorly by the government, and what better way that taking aim at the pension and benefits that most other Canadians don’t enjoy.
Lee said Turner’s highly political song clearly crosses the line.
“People are allowing their anger or hostility to the government to confuse their judgment on the larger issues of independence and nonpartisan public service,” said Lee. “This is not ambiguous. It is crystal clear. You can either be a folksinger and call for the overthrow of the government, or be a public servant. Life is about making choices.”
Asked about election promises for the public service, Conservative spokesman Stephen Lecce said the government has taken “concrete steps” to ensure compensation is “affordable and reasonable” and aligned with other employees. Sick leave is still an issue, and he said the Conservatives are “committed” to a new disability and sick-leave management system.
It’s unclear when Environment Canada — Turner’s employer — will make a decision on whether the singer breached the ethics act with his song. This will turn on whether he can still be perceived as objective and impartial at his job, which is tracking migratory bird patterns.
But Savoie and Lee agree on one thing: the partisan Harperman performance could undermine any party’s trust in the neutrality of public servants and could particularly reinforce the Tories’ long-held view that bureaucrats are mostly a bunch of Liberals.
“The public service should be concerned about this,” said Savoie. “If the Conservatives are re-elected … they can question if they can really get policy advice that supports their agenda without fear or favour,” he said.