Friday, July 06, 2007

RCMP - Under New Management


The Harper government has picked a bureaucrat to head the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. William Elliott had previously served as Canada's national security advisor. A 1979 graduate of Ottawa U. law school, Elliott has been a career civil servant.

The question is how Elliott, the first civilian to head the RCMP, will operate at the top of Canada's largest law enforcement service. There has already been some grumbling of discontent from within where members see the commissioner's position as reserved for one of their own. There is also concern that the appointment politicizes the force which, in some minds, is supposed to be at arm's length from the government. Elliot has longstanding conservative ties, going back to the Mulroney days.

Will Elliot's tenure be sabotaged from within? That's entirely possible. He's not a policeman and has no experience of policing. That leaves him dependent on the support and goodwill of those he directs.

While this is a clean break with tradition, much will depend on the new commissioner. Is he willing, much less able, to make his own clean break with the bureaucracy and government within which he's worked for the past 25-years? Can he become a mountie first or will he remain Stockwell Day's overseer? I suspect the membership of the force, including the senior levels, will be expecting Elliot to pick sides pretty quickly.
Now I have a confession. I knew Bill Elliot when we were in law school together. We were part of a close knit bunch of students who spent a lot of time quaffing down an awful lot of beer. Bill and I lost touch when I came out to the west coast to practise so I thought I'd find out what others who've followed his career think of him.
I found a piece at HarperBizarro that thoroughly slagged Elliot. I sure hope for Elliot's sake and the future of the RCMP those criticisms aren't true. I had them included in this post but decided to remove them following an assuring comment I subsequently received. Anyway, I've told you where to look if you want to read them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm a Liberal, and I think the appointment of Bill Elliott is a great move by the Conservative Government. This guy knows what he his doing, and is as straight a shooter as they come.

The chatter should be chalked up to nothing more than folks who haven't worked as hard as Elliott has over the years. Well deserved.

The Mound of Sound said...

HI Anon. Thanks for your thoughts on Bill. Good to hear it. Bill will need to be the competent, straight-shooter you describe to make this work. There'll be plenty of people, especially inside, waiting for him to trip up.