Discussions

What do you think about the " Harperman" song?  
 
The author and artist is now on "administrative leave".  
Should a Federal employee be allowed to do what he did?  
Federal employees can run for political parties so how does his writing and performing a song worse than running for a party in an election. I could see if he worked in the PMO office perhaps, but his job and duties are far removed from the political landscape. I think he's a scientist that does research on birds.  
National post link with video  
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com//news/canada/canadian-politics/harperman-protest-song-singer-could-make-role-of-an-impartial-civil-service-into-an-election-issue  

Having listened to it for the first time just now, my first impression is don't quit your day job....errr nevermind lol  
 
Edited by hutchster, 2015-09-02 20:13:43

I had a chuckle anyway.

He is allowed to do what he did. His employer the Canadian people are allowed to put him on administrative leave as they did. He knew the consequences before he took his actions as his job has a terms of service. If I or you did that to our employer we would be unemployed

tafeel said "He is allowed to do what he did. His employer the Canadian people are allowed to put him on administrative leave as they did. He knew the consequences before he took his actions as his job has a terms of service. If I or you did that to our employer we would be unemployed "

But the there was a time when public servants couldn't run in an election. Rules/policies were changed and now they can. How does his writing and performing a song affect his job performance?

The governments values and ethics code says staff must carry out their work in a non-partisan and impartial manner.  
 
And an excerpt from a supreme court ruling says that civil servants can take part in political activity if it doesn't impede their ability to do their job impartially or leave a perception of compromise.  
 
So what I get from this is determining whether or not they broke the rules is not black and white.  
 
But since he works with birds, quite sure his political activity will not compromise his work. So I don't think his jobs in danger, and his current administrative leave with pay is nothing to complain about.  
 
Not my taste in music, that's for sure.  
 

Public servants must conduct their duties in a non-partisan manner. There is no restriction on what political activities can be done outside of work (as ruled by the SCOC). I love seeing this go viral thanks to the efforts of The Harper Government®.

Would the Harper people have made a big deal and cause it to go viral as #Harperman has?

CheapTrickz said "Would the Harper people have made a big deal and cause it to go viral as #Harperman has? "

Would be a daunting task to write a song promoting Harper. What has he really accomplished (positively) during his time as PM? If they did write a song promoting Harper it would have to be in the form of an "Attack song", just like the Cons attack ads, lol!