The Canadian Bureaucracy

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The Canadian Bureaucracy

Government in itself is a large and unwieldy organization. Every day the Canadian

federal government makes hundreds of decisions; that effect everything from the fonts on

health pamphlets to which helicopters will be used to patrol this great nations borders.

How do our elected officials deal with so many important decisions? They don’t. The

members of the house of commons, the elected representatives of the Canadian people,

have ridings to watch over, and re-elections to worry about. The MP’s would be hard

pressed any day to know what was going on within the Treasury Board (TB), much less

the Defense Department Commission. Yet, these institutions and others like them make

major resource allocation decisions before the house has even an idea when they will be

voting on such legislation. These offices that research, propose, and implement the

government’s major policies are in fact the originators of all legislation. This is the

Bureaucracy.

The Bureaucracy is the largest component of the Canadian nations government. If

the Canadian government were viewed as a human body, Cabinet and the House of

Commons would only be the brain. This is the top of the bureaucratic pyramid where

information is examined and pronounced good or bad. There is a large and productive

body below this “head.” It is huge; with strong arms like the police and armed forces,

and legs like the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Its digestive system consists of a large

taxation branch made up of many organs that deal with distribution and allocation. The

senses of this body are everywhere. The individual nerves on its skin interact with

citizens everyday, while booking them into hospital rooms or registering their
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movements makes them a fully functional entity of the Canadian government. Even our

powerful house of commons could be brought to its knees. Bureaucrats are possible foes

to Canadian democracy, the risk is realistic. Any head that looses control of its body and

senses will ultimately loose control and the body will wither, perhaps even because of

virus. In conclusion though it is very far fetched there is a possibility our Bureaucrats

could affect our democracy. Perhaps not individually but if the banded together a

significant hindrance could be created. However, the author has a very low opinion of

bureaucrats and feels their individual or group volatility is a joke. “ In a hierarchy, every

employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." 5 With such a thought in mind, how

could one ever feel threatened from such a group.

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