{"id":79447,"date":"2021-10-25T10:50:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T14:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=79447"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:34:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:34:50","slug":"government-101-new-book","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/government-101-new-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Government 101: Adjunct Prof’s New Book A ‘How To’ For Political Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Government 101: Adjunct Prof's New Book A 'How To' For Political Leaders\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

When Michael Wernick<\/a> retired as Clerk of the Privy Council in spring 2019 after nearly 40 years in the federal bureaucracy, including three as Canada\u2019s top public servant, he could have written a memoir about his experiences with four prime ministers and dozens of senior politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His intimate access to power and the country\u2019s decision-making apparatus, often from a desk in the corner the Cabinet meeting room, would have provided countless pages of material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Prof.
Michael Wernick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the adjunct professor and fellow at Carleton\u2019s School of Public Policy and Administration<\/a>, and a former member of the university\u2019s Board of Governors, decided to write a very different book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governing Canada: A Guide to the Tradecraft of Politics<\/em><\/a>, released by UBC Press on October 25, is essentially a guide on how to govern effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a tell-all,\u201d says Wernick, paraphrasing one reviewer\u2019s response. \u201cIt\u2019s a how to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Governing<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMemoirs can have a very short shelf life,\u201d he continues. \u201cLots of politicians and other people write them, and they can give you a glimpse of a particular time or set of experiences. But I didn\u2019t want to write a memoir because it would have violated my sense of the roles I was in, which were roles of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Washington, D.C., and other capital cities, former staffers race to publish books after their administrations leave office, frequently to settle scores or enhance their own reputations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Wernick\u2019s juiciest stories involve Cabinet confidences and private conversations with the ministers he served under, and one of the keys to doing his job well was establishing and maintaining trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an introductory chapter entitled \u201cPower in the Capital\u201d followed by three successive chapters offering advice to would-be PMs, ministers and deputy ministers, Governing Canada <\/em>takes the high road. It unlocks Wernick\u2019s expertise and serves as a resource for an intended audience of aspiring politicians, policy and decision makers, business and non-profit leaders, diplomats, academics, students and the media, providing a detailed picture of how government works and the secrets to being successful.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n

Behind the Scenes Insight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Clerk of the Privy Council and as a deputy minister in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development from 2006 until 2014, Wernick worked closely with three prime ministers and seven ministers, attending around 250 meetings of Cabinet and its committees throughout his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These roles, and the other positions he held over the years, not only provided insight into everything that happens behind the scenes in government, they also showed Wernick the importance of interpersonal dynamics among women and men who run the country.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI came to an even deeper appreciation that it\u2019s about people and the human dimension behind how government works,\u201d he says, reflecting on one of the themes that runs throughout the book. \u201cPeople have go-to behaviours, character traits and cognitive biases. Some people with great resumes make good politicians; others do not. It\u2019s hard to predict.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The best training for a career in politics is not necessarily the common routes of law and business but psychology, says Wernick, who came to appreciate the contributions of non-partisan bureaucrats to Canada\u2019s democracy while in the public service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow these strands interact is crucial to being effective,\u201d he says about the chemistry between civil servants and politicians. \u201cIt\u2019s a complicated and dynamic relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest changes Wernick observed over the decades is how the pace of government has increased, and response time decreased, in a world of social media and short news cycles. This means that both public servants and politicians must react quickly and often recalibrate amid emerging issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach era,\u201d says Wernick, \u201cbrings new challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Prof.<\/figure>\n\n\n

Collaboration and the Art of Governing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly been a challenge for Canada\u2019s government, but it\u2019s not the only crisis faced by Ottawa during Wernick\u2019s career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The global financial meltdown in 2008. The election of Donald Trump. None were expected and all required a significant yet thoughtful response from the country\u2019s highest leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cPart of the art of governing,\u201d says Wernick, \u201cis how you respond to shocks. And the pandemic has shown how much collaboration is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While dealing with unexpected challenges, governments also need to get traction on other important parts of their agendas, which in Canada today includes climate change, reconciliation and the country\u2019s relationship with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPart of the tradecraft of government is marshalling the integrations of various ministers and ministries on complicated issues,\u201d says Wernick.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cYou have to pull together and work across various boundaries, both within government and between parties.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Which is perhaps the best advice anybody or any book can offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—
\nMore Stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Michael Wernick retired as Clerk of the Privy Council in spring 2019 after nearly 40 years in the federal bureaucracy, including three as Canada\u2019s top public servant, he could have written a memoir about his experiences with four prime ministers and dozens of senior politicians. His intimate access to power and the country\u2019s decision-making apparatus, often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":79468,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13],"cu_story_tag":[1921],"class_list":["post-79447","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-public-and-global-affairs"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/79447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/79447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98307,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/79447\/revisions\/98307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=79447"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=79447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}