Civil Service Act 1918 - Circumstances Leading To The Act

Circumstances Leading To The Act

In 1911, a number of members of the Ontario business community made a proposal to the then leader of the opposition, Robert Borden. In the proposal, they agreed to support Borden in the upcoming election if he instituted reforms in the civil service.

Those who lobbied for the reforms made the argument that until then the Canadian civil service has been inefficient largely as a result of patronage. Under a patronage system, the civil service had a tendency to go through a larger turnover than otherwise, as it is largely replaced following the formation of every new government. The direct result of this is a more limited expertise on the part of those occupying important government positions, decreasing productivity and efficiency in government.

Specifically the Ontario business community argued that this inefficient organization of the civil service reduced the international comparative advantage of Canada, having negative implications on the financial interests of Canadian businesses. They saw a more professional and skilled civil service as being conducive with these interests.

Read more about this topic:  Civil Service Act 1918

Famous quotes containing the words the act, leading and/or act:

    In the course of the actual attainment of selfish ends—an attainment conditioned in this way by universality—there is formed a system of complete interdependence, wherein the livelihood, happiness, and legal status of one man is interwoven with the livelihood, happiness, and rights of all. On this system, individual happiness, etc. depend, and only in this connected system are they actualized and secured.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    I have always rebelled against the unadorned, the unbefitting, the unawakened, the unresisting, the undesirable, the unplanned, the unshapely, the uncommitted, the unattempted—all leading to the unintended. I believe in the unsubmissive, the unfaltering, the unassailable, the irresistible, the unbelievable—in other words, in an art of life.
    Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)

    If your mother tells you to do a thing, it is wrong to reply that you won’t. It is better and more becoming to intimate that you will do as she bids you, and then afterwards act quietly in the matter according to the dictates of your better judgment.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)