Government Operations committee  The heart of the problem is that the tendency is towards a political system in which all decisions, be they legislative or executive, are made by a very limited number of individuals. Certain realities must be recognized. The Prime Minister of Canada appoints each and every member of its Cabinet.

Government Operations committee  Why could we not have the same thing?

Government Operations committee  That's too political a question for me to answer. I just deplore the fact that nobody has been appointed. In the United States, which we look at and which we sometimes admire and sometimes criticize, if the President of the United States, who is generally reputed to be the most powerful person in the world, proposes a candidate for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States and the Senate decides not to ratify that appointment, the President doesn't go off into a corner and sulk; he makes a second appointment.

Government Operations committee  One of the recommendations, as you know, is to establish a code of conduct for political staffers, which I don't think exists at the present time. It would be up to the government--and Parliament, I suppose--to decide what provisions that code of conduct would contain, but the objective, I think, would be to eliminate inappropriate political interference in public administration.

Government Operations committee  I did not ask to appear.

Government Operations committee  No. Mr. Marcotte got in touch with me. It was totally unexpected.

Government Operations committee  I'm sorry, I didn't hear that.

Government Operations committee  Let me explain why I didn't make a recommendation about election financing. It certainly was an issue that had been brought up before the commission, and there was no doubt in my mind that the the corruption that was uncovered came about because of a long-standing problem connected with election financing.

Government Operations committee  Well, this recommendation we made--that there be some objectivity in the appointment of public officials by the Prime Minister--was clearly a very important one. We didn't recommend that the right of the Prime Minister to make these appointments should be touched, but we thought there should be some sort of screening of candidates and some sort of a public opening-up to these appointments.

Government Operations committee  Allow me to interrupt you, because I've been waiting for a chance to jump in. Since you mentioned that issue, and you talked about a long evolution, permit me to point out that the recommendation I made about the accountability of deputy ministers echoed almost word for word a recommendation made in 1978 by the Lambert commission.

Government Operations committee  I would have at least liked to have seen some attempt at establishing rules of conduct, for the simple purpose of checking this trend.

Government Operations committee  I made another recommendation, which went unheeded. It was one of the first. I suggested that some type of code of conduct be established for members of the public service, so as to allow them to determine their rights and at what point they should be able to tell these people to mind their own business.

Government Operations committee  I will leave it up to the Canadian people to answer that question.

Government Operations committee  I understood you full well and have chosen not to answer.

Government Operations committee  Good morning, sir.