Unhappy times at CSIS Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here to get it delivered weekday mornings. Every year, tens of thousands of public servants fill out an anonymous survey on what it's like to work for the federal government. Last year, the number of respondents was 188,786. Last Friday, the feds published the results and summed everything up in a milquetoast top-level review. Maclean's explored the full dataset, where revealing trends lie in wait. This annual survey allowed Maclean's to reveal the harassment problem at Rideau Hall in 2018 that persisted into 2019 and, after dogged reporting by CBC News, forced Julie Payette to resign last year. The 2020 results show an improving vice-regal environment. One in four respondents reported harassment in 2018, and only 17 per cent said the same last year. CSIS gets low marks: Canada's spy agency scores remarkably poorly on several key questions. Forty-two per cent of respondents—that's over 600 employees—said the risk of exposure to COVID-19 was causing them stress "to a large extent" or "a very large extent." That's the worst of any federal body, and the findings confirm troubling reporting from Global News on CSIS's pandemic policy. Fifty per cent disagreed that senior managers make "effective and timely decisions" (the worst mark in the public service). Forty-six per cent of respondents disagreed to some extent that essential information "flows effectively from senior management to staff" (second worst), and 30 per cent of respondents disagree to some extent that senior managers lead by example in ethical behaviour (fourth worst). John Townsend didn't take the criticism lightly. The agency's head of media relations passed along a 562-word response (read the full thing). Townsend rightly pointed out that 84 per cent of CSIS respondents were proud of the work , and added many simply couldn't work from home as was possible in other workplaces. "We acknowledge that the results reflect a stressful period for essential employees," he said. "We will continue to collaboratively engage with employees and remain open to this feedback to ensure future and continuous improvement." Everything's a cover-up: The Conservative Party is really going for broke in its daily attack missives against Justin Trudeau's Liberals. The removal of Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin from Canada's vaccine rollout late last Friday served up an opportunity for the Tories. They turned two scandals into one, claiming the Liberal failure to fix a toxic military culture is worsening their failed vaccine campaign. The missive in Erin O'Toole's name arguably jumped the shark when it claimed a lack of detail into the three-day-old investigation into Fortin's conduct was yet another Trudeau-powered "cover-up." But the PM wasn't helping himself any when he conveniently abandoned a morning press conference—due to a "scheduling conflict," said a flack—just as CTV News reporter Kevin Gallagher started asking when Trudeau knew about the Fortin revelations. Pity poor Ian Cameron, the comms guy for Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan who had to cut in. (Trudeau and O'Regan announced 10 million bucks to train "energy advisors" who help homeowners through retrofits.) This hot market isn't like the others: On the cover of the latest issue of Maclean's, Jason Markusoff delves into the dying dream of home ownership for scads of young people in Canada. A sizzling market is nothing new for the constantly scorching cities, of course, but Markusoff found similar trends in countless other places, too. Unlike past surges, the most frenzied action is no longer concentrated in the epicentres of Toronto and Vancouver. Canada has become a nation of epicentres, as buyers from major cities hit smaller towns where, until recently, they could reasonably expect not to be priced out. The pandemic’s transformative impact on jobs and home lives has fuelled the trend. Liberated from their commutes by the mass shift to remote work, urbanites are looking further afield. NACI has a problem. Here's how to fix it: One day, most of Canada had never heard of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization. The next, it seemed like the volunteer panel of vaccine experts was a pandemic villain. Horrible comms snafus caused that overnight transformation. But no one's quibbling with the science. The solution might be simple: Clearly, the stakes are high. Almost everything about COVID-19 vaccines is complex. The facts, understandably, keep changing. A single miscue can spread anxiety almost in real time. But the solution to NACI’s woes might be deceptively simple: Keep doing the science. Just find someone who can properly explain it all to a weary, frustrated nation. A third-generation pol: David Lewis was a founding member of the NDP who went on to lead the federal party from 1972-1974. David's son Stephen was also an elected New Democrat who led Ontario's provincial party for eight years—and rose to opposition leader in 1975. Now, Stephen's son Avi is throwing his hat into the ring. He'll claim the federal NDP nomination in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, a Liberal-held riding that's never gone orange. (Recall that Lewis and his wife, Naomi Klein, disrupted the party establishment with the Leap Manifesto that ended Tom Mulcair's run as leader.) Sohi wants to be mayor: Back in 2015, Liberals were positively ecstatic to have won four seats in Alberta. They lost every single riding in 2019, including that of then-natural resources minister Amarjeet Sohi. But this fall, Edmonton mayor Don Iveson won't seek a third term as His Worship. Sohi's taking his shot. He knows city hall, having served as a councillor for eight years. And he knows the city's roads from his days as a bus driver. Living in a vacuum: An innocent layperson asked any scientist who saw his tweet to confirm that "things will get messy if a body is exposed to space without a suit." Chris Hadfield, your mother's favourite astronaut, obliged with a gory and grotesquely entertaining description of a human body's experience in the ultra-low pressure of outer space. —Nick Taylor-Vaisey | 
