Yes, sir. I opened on that point by saying that it is my understanding that there are some excellent people at the senior reaches of the public service right now who have gone through the ministerial office route. I guess, though, I would reiterate the points I made. I'm not from government. I'm an outside lawyer and I arrived in Ottawa for a time, stayed, and left. I won't speak for the people in the commission. You can read the report yourself, but there was at least a perception of favouritism and conflict. That's the perception.
On your particular points, you say there's a competition already. It's a different competition. It's a competition in front of ministers rather than the public services. That's point one. You say these individuals obtain incredible knowledge. I accept that, and I've said that there are some excellent people in the process, but there's more than one way to obtain that knowledge.
You speak about clerks. I had the great good fortune to be law clerk to Chief Justice Bora Laskin at the time of the patriation case. There was only one law clerk per judge in those days. It was a wonderful year, and when I completed my term as his clerk, the rule was that I was not to appear in front of the Supreme Court of Canada for two years, and I didn't, because of the perception of conflict.