Pioneer public service : an administrative history of the United Canadas, 1841-1867

This book makes a new approach to Canadian politics describing the evolution and structure of the administrative machine which still serves the Canadian nation, and in the process it attempts to acknowledge and appraise the hitherto unsung contributions of the public servant to the welfare of a pioneer community.

This book makes a new approach to Canadian politics, from the administrative side. It provides, first, a description of the evolution and structure of the administrative machine which, with few fundamental changes, still serves the Canadian nation, and in the process it attempts to acknowledge and appraise the hitherto unsung contributions of the public servant to the welfare of a pioneer community. A second objective is to disclose the presence in the pioneer public service of certain basic administrative issues which today still rise to perplex both the student and practitioner of public administration. And, finally, this study reveals a neglected aspect of the winning of responsible government in Canada—the author contends that the recognition of the constitutional principle on the political level, did not, in fact, coincide with its practical implementation at the administrative level.

As Dr. R. MacGregor Dawson points out in his Foreword, "Few students, on suspects, appreciate how great has been the influence of the permanent officials in the years before Confederation, nor do they have an adequate comprehension of the degree to which administrative decisions of those days, both by Ministers and officials, determined many of the present practices. An astonishingly large number of the problems, moreover, will be found to have remained substantially the same for the past hundred years. The scheme of departmental organization, the delegation of authority and the allotment of responsibility, the application of financial controls, the intricate give and take between the political non-technical Minister and the technically trained specialist—these in some aspect or another have been the constant concern of the administrator: a different time, a different place, has simply shifted the emphasis a little one way or the other."

Professor Hodgetts writes with humour and point; his book is a brilliant addition to the Canadian Government Series, in which it is the seventh volume to appear.

FOREWORD 5 PREFACE 7 CONTENTS 11 I. The Canadas: Perspectives 13 II. Lord Durham Proposes 24 III. Lord Sydenham Disposes 36 IV. The Bureaucracy from Within 47 V. The Bureaucracy from Without 67 VI. The Top Command 85 VII. Tightening the Purse Strings 108 VIII. The Crown Lands Department: "A Fair Subject of Discussion" 130 IX. Nature Provides, Man Divides 140 X. Administering the Natural Resources: Three Problems 168 XI. Public Works: Department of Transport and Housekeeper Extraordinary 188 XII. A "One Man Power" versus the Engineers' Empire 201 XIII. Indian Affairs: The White Man's Albatross 217 XIV. Agriculture: Departmental Potting-Shed 238 XV. Immigrants or Itinerants 252 XVI. Pioneer Public Service: Retrospect 281 APPENDIX 293 INDEX 299