RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:We are having are cake and eating itMarty...interesting that you mention this...
"Back in the day"...a close friend of mine was senior Government official. He commented at the time that Chretien never read his briefing notes either as Energy Minister or later as Prime Minister. Conversely, Mulroney read his briefings and asked lots of questions before making a decision.
The other thing he noted was that it also very much depended on who they chose to be part of their office. Long time friends and political hacks or people who actually knew something and weren't afraid to speak their mind and try to do the right thing for the country.
Will be interesting to see what Polivere does if and when he gets to be Prime Minister.
As an interesting side bar to all this...
Back in the 1980s, my friend was a senior official related to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Development. The staff of the Secretariat would prepare Assessment Notes of each Departmental proposal being discussed on the agenda. Separately attached, just for the Chairman's eyes was a draft Record of Decision. During the meeting, Cabinet Ministers would be in and out of the meeting room for whatever. When it came time to record a decision, the Chairman would read the draft Record of Decision which had been prepared in advance of the Meeting and since most Ministers were either in and out of the meeting or didn't care, the draft Decision was usually passed and sent to the Priorities and Planning Committee for ratification.