Kevin Page Will Not be Back After His Contract is Done

Kevin Page, the budget officer who has had to work under Stephen Harper's totalitarianism, has stated that he will not stay on when his contract is through.

But he offers some very good advice, for the person who replaces him.

Page said he wants lawmakers to amend the rules that govern his office, removing it from the auspices of the Library of Parliament, the legislature’s research arm. Page also wants lawmakers, not the prime minister, to have the power to appoint and fire the budget officer.

“I don’t think it’d be right for me to say ‘This is what it needs to be,’ and then all of a sudden, I benefit by that,” Page, 52, said in an interview yesterday at Bloomberg’s office in Ottawa. “It should benefit the next person. The real beneficiaries would be Canadians, really.”

I hope he changes his mind. Stephen Harper will soon be a distant bad memory, and Mr. Page was one of the few to stand up to the dictator and not lose his head.