Justin Trudeau┬аdescribed┬аhis new cabinet Tuesday┬аas┬а“a team of familiar faces and new faces that are ready to put all their strengths, all their hard work┬аtoward┬аdelivering for Canadians in the coming years.”
“Delivering” may be┬аthe key word here.
According to a senior Liberal source, the speed and urgency with which the government was able to operate while responding to the pandemic┬аcrisis┬аled the prime minister to wonder whether the government could move faster and more ambitiously to deal with challenges like climate change and the housing shortage.
Even as┬аCOVID-19 slowly recedes, there’s no shortage of issues that can or should be viewed as crises тАФ not only climate change and housing┬аbut things like reconciliation, economic growth and failures of leadership within the Canadian Forces.
The clock is ticking
The government also┬аmay now┬аassume┬аit has two years to run before another election тАФ which is both a decent amount of time to do some things and not a lot of time if you want or need to do a lot.
Every federal cabinet in history has been put together┬аwith the goal of┬аactually getting┬аa few things done. But if the┬аdemands of the┬аmoment are urgent┬атАФ and if this government particularly needs to show┬аit can make real┬аprogress тАФ then the question is whether this is┬аa cabinet built to deliver.
Viewed from that angle, Tuesday’s┬аannouncement saw a number of intriguing moves.
Trudeau’s first cabinet, unveiled six years ago on a sunny day, was conspicuously flashy тАФ┬аand not just because it established a new standard for gender parity. The health minister was a doctor, the finance minister was a CEO and the defence minister was a decorated soldier. The justice minister was an Indigenous lawyer. There was an astronaut.
One can debate how well that first┬аcabinet worked out.
A team of familiar faces
Six years later, on a cold and rainy day, Trudeau┬аunveiled┬аa cabinet of people he has known for years (including friends and long-time associates like┬аM├йlanie┬аJoly, Omar┬аAlghabra, Marc Miller, Mark Holland, Dominic┬аLeBlanc┬аand Seamus O’Regan) and people he presumably trusts.
It’s decidedly less flashy. There is no longer a┬аminister of middle class prosperity. And even the astronaut is out тАФ Marc┬аGarneau┬аis apparently scheduled to blast off to an overseas diplomatic appointment in the near future.
The flashiest, most 2015-like┬аappointment on Tuesday┬аwas that of Steven┬аGuilbeault, the celebrated environmental activist and Trudeau’s new minister of the environment. That move may be┬аexciting for environmental groups and the┬аvoters who would like to see the government move aggressively against climate change. But in terms of getting things done, it’s also a gamble.
For one thing,┬аGuilbeault’s┬аimmediate predecessor тАФ┬аJonathan Wilkinson тАФ┬аmade steady progress on the government’s policy goals while proving to be a smart and practical, though unexciting, communicator. For another,┬аGuilbeault┬аwas nothing like that while serving as heritage minister.┬аThe fight over his signature legislative initiative┬аwas particularly loud,┬аmessy and ultimately unsuccessful.
Wilkinson is at least not going very far. As natural resources minister he could have a significant role to play in the government’s climate agenda, presumably including the Liberal commitment to legislate emissions limits for the oil and gas industry.
After the prime minister himself made┬аa mess┬аwith his unfortunate excursion to┬аTofino,┬аthe Indigenous┬аreconciliation agenda is now in the hands of Miller (who replaces Carolyn Bennett as minister of Crown-Indigenous relations) and Patty┬аHajdu┬а(who replaces Miller at Indigenous Services).
Miller, like Wilkinson, has seemed steady and effective тАФ while Bennett┬аrecently faced calls for her resignation┬аafter she sent a┬аtaunting text message to Jody Wilson-Raybould.┬аHajdu┬аhas been criticized for her public handling of the pandemic, but the prime minister appears to have faith that she can handle a closely watched and high-stakes file that is all about delivery.
The mess at the Department of National Defence is now in the hands of Anita┬аAnand, a former law professor who proved adept at handling the single most important file this government had over the last two years: vaccine procurement.
WATCH: Trudeau discusses appointment of new defence minister
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to questions about the newly appointed Defence Minister Anita Anand. 1:23
The health file now belongs to an earnest economist, Jean-Yves┬аDuclos, who was last in charge of overseeing the government’s paperwork as president of the Treasury Board. The housing dilemma gets its own minister in Ahmed┬аHussen.
Meanwhile, responsibility for making legislative progress on any of these fronts will be shared by a new government House leader, Mark Holland.┬а(Trudeau and Holland have┬аknown each other since they were both opposition MPs.)
“One of the things we saw very clearly in this election was that Canadians are expecting big things to be done by Parliament and by this government,” Trudeau said Tuesday.
The pace of action during the pandemic likely was not sustainable and the federal response was not exactly a model of flawless execution. In their haste, for instance, the prime minister and his team┬аwalked right into the entirely avoidable WE affair. And the wisdom of some of the pandemic policies enacted тАФ┬аlike the federal wage subsidy┬атАФ will be debated for years.
But Trudeau’s government is constantly chased тАФ fairly or not тАФ by claims that it┬аhasn’t amounted to much. As the subject line of a Conservative fundraising email put it on Tuesday afternoon, “Trudeau’s cabinet = style over substance.”
Trudeau bristles at such criticism. But any government that’s been in office for six years has little room to sell itself on things like promise and symbolism тАФ and a greater need to show that it’s still delivering tangible results.
WATCH: Trudeau says he’ll lead the Liberals into the next election
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tells reporters on Oct. 26, 2020, that he does intend to stay on as Liberal Party leader into the next federal election. 0:14
Trudeau was asked Tuesday whether he plans to lead the Liberal Party into the next election.┬аHe said yes, enthusiastically.
There really is only one way for a prime minister who isn’t planning to quit tomorrow to answer that question. But regardless of who leads the Liberals into the next election, these next two years could provide pivotal to both the party’s re-election hopes and this government’s legacy.
The prime minister gave himself a month to pick this cabinet and he has given this cabinet another month to get ready for Parliament. By then, it will have few excuses for not hitting the ground running тАФ and there will be a great pressure on it to deliver as Trudeau has promised.
