In my opening comments I said that there does not appear to be a debate any longer as to whether the next commissioner should be a police officer or not. Bill Elliott himself--as recently as in this morning's paper, I believe--said that the next one should absolutely be a police officer.
As I also said earlier, when Bill Elliott was appointed as commissioner of the RCMP in 2007, although it was a bit of a shock to the system initially, everybody settled into it very quickly. I can tell you here in all frankness that everyone I worked with, everybody who reported to me, and everyone who I spoke with became very comfortable very quickly. In fact, we felt at the time, with all the changes that were about to come, that this was probably the best thing that could happen to us, because we'd have somebody who understands the bureaucracy, somebody who understands how government works--better than police officers do--and it would be very helpful to us; this change of mindset would be probably a good thing for the RCMP.
So could the next person, assuming we put that debate that I said seems to be done with...be somebody from outside? Yes, certainly, it could...as long as that person has the leadership skills and is secure enough in who they are to surround themselves with the right people, to be able to listen to advice, and to ultimately make the decision but not stifle the discussion: to allow input, listen, and be stronger by surrounding themselves with the right people. Leadership, at the end of the day, will win the day.