Profession: Public Servant

by Ruth Hubbard

The story of the woman who, as deputy minister at Canada Revenue, implemented Canada’s Goods & Services Tax (the GST). “One of the two best deputy ministers in town…” Glen Shortliffe, Clerk of the Privy Council (then the head of the Canadian federal civil service) This book sets out a former deputy minister’s take on the “burden of office” of the role and on the difficulties of staying out of one ditch – excessive concern with safeguarding a few key principles – without sliding into another – being too anxious to please or too tempted to put personal interests first. The story emphasizes the constructive contribution of experience and imagination, especially when it is enriched by on-the-job reflection. Ruth Hubbard is a practitioner, advisor, explorer and published writer about governance and management challenges, especially in the public and not-for-profit sectors. She served for more than a decade as a federal deputy minister, during implementation of Canada’s value-added tax as well, later, as Master of the Royal Canadian Mint and President of the Public Service Commission. Currently a senior fellow at The Centre on Governance and the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, she is a senior partner in Invenire.

138 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 28, 2010

About the author

Ruth Hubbard was a professor of biology at Harvard University, where she was the first woman to hold a tenured professorship position in biology. She authored several books challenging the male model of science.

Born Ruth Hoffmann in Vienna, Austria, she escaped Nazism as a teenager, moving with with her family to the United States. Hubbard graduated from Radcliffe College in 1944, earning an A.B. in biochemical sciences.