Sheila Fraser—an honourable public servant

In our habitual government-bashing, we sometimes overlook the splendid contributions made to our society by our civil servants. Such a contribution, manifesting integrity and commitment to public service at its best, has been exemplified for the past ten years by our retiring Auditor General Sheila Fraser.

The CBC  refers to Ms. Fraser as "one of the most important—not to mention popular—Canadian national figures of the last decade." Quarreling with either one of these claims is impossible. Scrupulous, forthright and unflappable, her pointed yet balanced critiques of both Liberal and Conservative government spending practices characterized her tenure and made her one of the most well-known and well-respected of Canadians. Quality civil servants such as Sheila Fraser are, I often think, even more important to government than quality politicians.

Canadians owe her a vote of thanks for ten years of assiduous oversight of our government's use—or abuse—of our tax dollars. She will be hard to replace.