Michael Wernick on governing, political journalism, and his Machiavellian inspiration

'I was pissed off, and I thought it needed to be called out:' the former top civil servant talks to Peter Mazereeuw about his explosive committee testimony following the Yellow Vest protest on Parliament Hill, and a whole lot more.

Michael Wernick served as clerk of the Privy Council between 2016 and 2019.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Feature

BY PETER MAZEREEUW

December 20, 2021

Michael Wernick spent 38 years working in Canada's non-partisan public service. For the last three of those years, from 2016 to 2019, he served as the clerk of the Privy Council and secretary to the cabinet, a role in which he was the most senior civil servant in the government, and one of the prime...

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