Aucoin, Peter creator Goodyear-Grant, Elizabeth text xu| 2002 continuing ng p.301-27. Efforts to design merit-based appointment systems for the boards of government agencies, boards and commissions (ABCS) have gained greater priority over the past decade in order to enhance public confidence in the integrity of the political process, improve the governance of organizations operating at arm's length from ministers, and reduce the risks to the public interest and public purse that come with incompetent boards. The Nova Scotia reform experience in this regard is instructive because this province's appointment regime not only encompasses a legislative committee veto over ministerial appointments, a power unique to this province in the Canadian and comparative Westminster systems, but also uniquely sets the merit standard as relative-merit, that is, the appointment of the most qualified of all applicants, and not merely a qualified candidate. This article reviews this provincial experience and concludes that a merit-based appointment system that pursues relative merit can be created but only by restricting the authority of ministers to a veto over the appointment of candidates nominated by the ABCS themselves. - Reproduced. Civil service Administrative reform Canadian Public Administration 180718