William Elliott may have broken new ground, when, as an outsider, he was chosen by the Harper government two years ago to be the first civilian commissioner of the RCMP.
Now he says his successor should be come from within RCMP ranks, as was the case before his appointment.
On Sunday Elliott told CTV's Question Period a qualified candidate from within the force "would be better for the organization."
"My appointment from outside of the force was controversial, " Elliott conceded. He had been a senior bureaucrat who never worked as a police officer.
But he dismissed suggestions that this may have handicapped his effectiveness as chief.
"I've been very pleased by the reception that I have received, even those members and employees of the force who were surprised and, frankly, disappointed and somewhat angered in some cases," Elliott said.
Elliott was brought in to overhaul the management and culture of the national police force after the controversial tenure of former commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who resigned after giving contradictory evidence to Parliament about the Maher Arar case.
At the time he said he was "confident that we can improve the governing model and create an efficient and modern police agency."
His appointment was meant to bring more civilian oversight to the troubled force. And he insists he's made some positive changes.
"We have turned around our recruiting. We are sending record numbers of cadets to our training academy in Regina. We are very significantly addressing our vacancy problem," Elliot said Sunday.
And he addressed the latest black mark on the RCMP: the deadly use of tasers on Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski in October 2007.
Elliott admitted things went "wrong", but said the RCMP has learned from the incident.
"We have tightened the kinds of situations where tasers can be used. We have increased our reporting and we think we have a much better policy now than we had in the past," Elliott said.
