William Elliot: Long Time Tory

It is hardly surprising that Harper picked a good Tory for the job. It is good to have a little more on his background. The article may be right that he will be on the job only long enough to reform the RCMP as best he can and then will move on and be replaced by someone from within. It will be interesting to see if he can survive and do the job.


Long-time Tory a man of little flash
JANE TABER

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

July 6, 2007 at 9:25 PM EDT

The country's new RCMP commissioner has a gaggle of kids, a modest home in the west end of Ottawa and Conservative ties that go back more than two decades.

Around official Ottawa, Bill Elliott, a lawyer by training, is not known as a motivator, according to a long-time Tory.

Rather, the 53-year-old bureaucrat is considered to be a solid, hardworking guy with little flash, which is in contrast to his predecessor, Giuliano Zaccardelli, a career RCMP member who resigned under a cloud in December and who attracted controversy almost immediately after his appointment for buying $1,000 riding boots.

As well, one look at Mr. Elliott's long résumé shows him jumping every three to four years from job to job in the bureaucracy, indicating that he may be in this top job for only a short time as a mop-up man rather than for the long term.


William Elliott, Canada's new commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, attends a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Friday. (REUTERS/Patrick Doyle)

Indeed, the force is in dire need of a makeover after a devastating report from lawyer David Brown concluded that the RCMP's management was “horribly broken.”

“It wouldn't be surprising to me if Bill were only there for a couple of years to sort it out and get it reconstituted and reset and then take off,” said a Conservative friend who asked not to be named. “Because if you look at his track record he has moved around quite a bit and I don't know if this will be his final resting place in government.”

Although he's not controversial – in fact, a friend said that he is so low-key and discreet that no one would even know he was a senior bureaucrat – his appointment, which takes effect on July 16, comes amid controversy.

He is a civilian appointed to an organization whose members were certain that the replacement for Mr. Zaccardelli would come from within.

As well, the Liberal Opposition has raised concerns about Mr. Elliott's Conservative background, because he started out in 1988 as a special assistant to deputy prime minister Don Mazankowski. He worked himself up to chief of staff, leaving in 1992 to go into the bureaucracy. The Conservative government was defeated in 1993.

But Mr. Elliott's Tory ties predate even his work with the Mulroney government.

In 1984, he was practising law with a large firm, but was also the president of the Ottawa West Progressive Conservative riding association when David Daubney was elected MP.

As far back as 1981, he was working on the campaign of provincial Progressive Conservative MPP Reuben Baetz, a cabinet minister in the governments of Bill Davis and Frank Miller.

Mr. Elliott, who one friend describes as a “real family man,” has four children – three girls, the oldest of whom is 27, and a boy. “He's got a great sense of humour,” the friend said. “He's very easy going. He likes to laugh ... he doesn't take himself too seriously.

This week at the Independence Day party at U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins's residence, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day was teasing reporters that an announcement of the appointment was imminent. But Mr. Day had been saying this since the job was posted in March.

Word began spreading within the police force on Thursday that Mr. Day was poised to announce the new commissioner. Even then, everyone believed the new top cop would be from the inside, a senior source said.

Late that afternoon, two of the top candidates, including Deputy Commissioner William Sweeney, were spotted at the Privy Council Office, likely receiving the bad news.

Mr. Elliott, who served as a senior bureaucrat in the Public Safety Department, was always considered to be a long-shot for the post, although his name began to surface in speculation about three weeks ago.

Still, many in the RCMP, including Acting Commissioner Bev Busson, said that the person who becomes commissioner should be someone who worked their way up from constable.

Bringing in an outsider, she said in a recent interview with The Globe and Mail, would be a mistake. Mistake perhaps, but the five-person search committee unanimously recommended Mr. Elliott for the job.

Norman Inkster, a former commissioner, served on that committee. Yesterday, he said: “I think the challenges facing the RCMP at this time in its history are somewhat unique and perhaps will make commissioner Elliott's appointment the right one. Because, while he comes with certain downsides, not having been a member of the RCMP, he certainly comes with a large number of upsides. And that is, he knows his way around government, he knows his way around government policy and Treasury Board. All those things that are so important in implementing any recommendations that have been made by the Arar commission ... and not to mention the things that are out there are on the horizon ...”

William Elliott to be new RCMP Commissioner

One can understand Harper's desire to have someone as commissioner who is outside the force and has close ties to the government. Elliott will be outside the RCMP culture and somewhat immune to any attempts to deflect him from necessary changes.
It is understandable that top RCMP officials are aghast and offended but for the lower ranks it will probably make no difference. In fact they may be relieved that there is someone not part of the hierarchy that was causing many problems in the top position.
However, there will no doubt be a lot of criticism concerning the politicisation of the post by this appointment. But it is really replacement of one type of politics, insider cronyism, by another!

PM to name bureaucrat as new RCMP commissioner
Updated Fri. Jul. 6 2007 7:34 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The new full-time commissioner for the RCMP will be William Elliott, a civilian and top bureaucrat with the Public Safety Department, CTV News has learned.


The government is expected to make the announcement Friday.


Elliott, who has never served as a police officer, will take the reins of a force troubled by a pension scandal and a special investigator's report that called its governance "horribly broken."


"The prime minister felt he needed an outsider, somebody to sweep in with a new broom, and with no loyalties within the RCMP," reported CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife.


Bev Busson, who filled in as the force's acting commissioner after Giuliano Zaccardelli stepped down last December, had called for a Mountie to lead the RCMP.


"I've spoken to a lot of senior RCMP officers tonight, and they feel this is a demoralizing blow, a slap in their face," said Fife.


"They feel they're being punished for the mistakes and scandal that happened under former commissioner Zaccardelli and a few people who worked under him."


He added that some officers view Elliott as a "political operator" who got his start under the government of Brian Mulroney.


In 1989, Elliott worked as an executive assistant to the office of the deputy prime minister. One year later, he became chief of staff in the same office.


Elliott also served as national security advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper from April 2005 until last spring.


David Brown, former head of the Ontario Securities Commission, laid most of the blame for the RCMP's troubles at the feet of Zaccardelli.


Brown cast Zaccardelli as an authoritarian bully whose mishandling of complaints over management of the $12-billion RCMP pension fund destroyed morale within the agency.


Zaccardelli has denied any wrongdoing.