19 Mar Graham Steele defends cabinet salaries as a ceiling for political staff
On the CBC website, Graham Steele criticized as excessive the salary Laurie Graham will receive as principal secretary to Premier Stephen McNeil ($160,000). He pointed out that cabinet ministers make less ($138,281.41).
In the Halifax Examiner, Tim Bousquet used Steele’s critique to launch a scathing personal attack on Graham. His objection was brazenly sexist: Graham shouldn’t get the job because she is married to Acadian University president Ray Ivany, a man Bousquet detests; Graham doesn’t deserve a big salary because Ivany already makes plenty of money.
Portraying politicians and their staff as greedy evil-doers rouses the rabble but poisons the body politic. It’s Bousquet’s ever-luffing mainsail, but the attack on Graham was particularly ugly. So I wrote a rebuttal, and by way of introducing the topic, mentioned and dismissed Steele’s objection that Graham will make more than cabinet ministers:
What Steele knows perfectly well, but didn’t say, is that hundreds of provincial government employees make more than cabinet ministers. Laurie Graham’s salary places her on par with, to cite but two examples, assistant deputy ministers and legal aid attorneys. For one of the two most senior positions in the Office of the Premier, it’s hard to call that excessive.
In an email to Contrarian, Steele responds:
Laurie Graham took a political job, not a civil service job. It’s legitimate to compare her salary (as I do) to other political jobs, like chief of staff or Cabinet minister. The scales are different. She’s likely the highest-paid political person in Nova Scotia’s history, apart from the last few premiers. I don’t think it’s legitimate (as you do) to compare her salary to civil service positions. In any event, if there’s an issue, it shouldn’t come down to whether people know Laurie or not. It’s hardly relevant that you know her and Tim doesn’t.
Perhaps Steele’s real objection is that senior political staff in the premier’s office wield more power than cabinet ministers, as he learned to his dismay. I agree with Steele that whether a journalist knows someone personally is hardly relevant—except perhaps when the journalist launched a strident personal attack.