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Preston Manning: Why the Federal Bureaucracy Must Be Reined In by a Newly Elected Government

Given the growth of the civil service today, the chief opposition may increasingly come from unelected public officials—’the opposition of officials.’
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Preston Manning: Why the Federal Bureaucracy Must Be Reined In by a Newly Elected Government
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau greets Department of Foreign Affairs staff who packed the lobby of the department’s headquarters in Ottawa on Nov. 6, 2015. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
Preston Manning
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Commentary

In Canada’s democratic political system, after a general election, the party winning the largest number of seats in the elected assembly forms the next government, and the party winning the second-largest number usually becomes “the Official Opposition.” On the surface, therefore, it might appear that the chief sources of criticism and opposition to the decisions and policies of the newly elected government will be the Official Opposition.

Preston Manning
Preston Manning
Author
Preston Manning served as a member of the Canadian Parliament from 1993 to 2001, and as leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2000. He founded two political parties: the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. Both of these became the Official Opposition in Parliament and led to the creation of the Conservative Party of Canada, which formed the federal government from 2004-2015.