| Written by Eugene Mccarthy, Catholic Register Special,
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 Noel Kinsella, Speaker of the Canadian Senate
The two ancient philosophers, who visualized a society in which the “ethical and common good” was a basic tenet of society, would have been proud of the way public service has become a “noble and profoundly ennobling activity” in achieving this goal, according to one of Canada’s senior public servants.
Noel Kinsella, Speaker of the Canadian Senate , while giving the annual John J. Wintermeyer lecture at St. Jerome’s University Sept. 26, emphasized that “public service is not just an occupation. It is a vocation, a noble calling. A calling to do good.” And, he noted, public service encompasses more than government employees and/or legislators.
Kinsella’s remarks came as St. Jerome’s announced the formation of the St. Jerome’s Centre for Responsible Citizenship , a major world and community outreach program which is established after the popular lecture series, which will be incorporated into the centre, marks its 25th anniversary.
In a talk entitled Serving the common good: ethics-based civic education and public service, Kinsella said while most people would regard government employees and elected officials as members of the public service, the term actually applies to three categories of persons.
“There is the representative public service of those who serve... on municipal councils, legislatures... and public office holders such as members of the judiciary.”
The second category is the “professional civil service” such as administrators and government employees, “a group engaged as non-partisan public administrators whose numbers could include those working in justice, health and educational fields.”
Thirdly, there are “all those who... participate in service, workers, church and non-governmental organizations... individuals who... undertake singular actions for the purpose of contributing to the common good,” such as helping in events to raise funds for medical research or charities.
The “central focus of public service,” stressed Kinsella, was the adherence to “ethics grounded in reason and expressed in the conception of the public good.”
He felt that the Canadian government’s Public Service Code of Values and Ethics “is congruent with this view and provides an excellent source of practical guidance to public servants, both those working for the federal government and those in the other categories of public service.”
He said the establishment in the early 20th century of the Civil Service Commission — now the 100-year-old Public Service Commission — did much to do away with patronage and ensure that positions were based on merit.
During a question period, Kinsella said that, despite cynicism about political parties, he considered them a “good thing” because they provided the means by which citizens could work for the common good. He compared the workings of political parties to the church.
“If you have bad apples in the church, it doesn’t mean that the whole church is bad. Some of its members may be bad but the church is fundamentally good.”
(McCarthy is a freelance writer in Waterloo, Ont.)
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