National Post (National Edition)
The painful sting of a self-inflicted wound
When allegations about a toxic work environment at Rideau Hall began to surface, Justin Trudeau dismissed the idea of replacing the “excellent” Julie Payette as Governor General.
The country doesn't want a constitutional crisis to add to the existing health crisis, he said in September.
Now, not only does he have both, he has a unity crisis too.
At the end of a miserable work week, Trudeau had to call the Queen to confess that he had botched the appointment of Her Majesty's representative.
Meanwhile, he was dealing with a COVID vaccine supply problem and brewing regional unrest, as premiers across the country expressed their discontent at Ottawa's handling of the Keystone XL pipeline issue.
When Trudeau faced reporters on Friday, he attempted to contort his face into a smile, as he was badgered about Payette's exit, but his eyes betrayed a secret desire to whip his tormentors with wire and then stew them in brine.
To extend the Shakespeare metaphor, the prime minister is adrift on a sea of troubles.
The constitutional wound stings worst because it was entirely self-inflicted. On the basis that whatever Stephen Harper did, he would do the precise opposite, Trudeau abolished the vice-regal appointments committee that gave us the best governor general in recent history, David Johnston. Instead, a group in the Privy Council Office was charged with finding an Indigenous candidate for the position, only to be told a month before they were due to finalize their recommendations that they could cease and desist because the prime minister's advisers had found a candidate who was “too spectacular to say no to”.
There were early signs that Payette might not be cut out for the job, when she insulted people of faith by mocking the idea that life is a result of divine intervention.
The former astronaut adopted the motto Per Aspera Ad Astra (through hardship to the stars) but by the end of her first year in office, it was apparent that there would be more adversity than astral nights.
Reports started to emerge that she did not want to preside over a ceremony granting a key government bill royal assent. Volunteers awarded service medals received them in the mail, rather than being invited to Rideau Hall.
It became clear that Payette was having trouble adjusting to a job that required strict adherence to convention.
It also became apparent that the Liberals had not vetted her appointment very well, including being oblivious to staffing controversies in previous jobs.
Last summer, allegations of bullying and harassment against her and her senior bureaucrat — an old friend from Montreal with no public service experience — prompted a third-party investigation. The report produced by that inquiry has not surfaced but it was apparently incriminating enough that Trudeau asked for Payette's resignation when the two met on Wednesday.
The obvious question is: how did somebody so temperamentally ill-suited to the job pass the vetting process?
The answer is that nobody wanted to derail an appointment that was so on-brand for Trudeau — a female, francophone astronaut. What could go wrong? As Payette takes off with her $149,000 a year annuity, Canada is left without an occupant in a job foundational to our democracy — that is, ensuring we have a prime minister and arbitrating the matter if there are any doubts.
Trudeau played politics with a position that should be above politics.
In doing so, he has embarrassed himself, which is his prerogative, and the country, which is not.
The other crises are less directly attributable to the prime minister, even if they could prove as injurious to his fortunes if badly handled.
Trudeau said on Friday he spoke with Pfizer's global CEO, Albert Bourla, about the delay in vaccine supply from the pharma giant.
Pfizer said it would slow shipments to Canada and other countries as it retooled its factory in Belgium. This week it emerged that Canada will get no vaccine at all next week and around half the expected doses in the following two weeks. When the news broke, Ontario Premier Doug Ford conjured up the eye-watering image of him solving the supply issue by being “up that guy's (Bourla's) yingyang so far with a firecracker he wouldn't know what hit him.”
Trudeau's approach was less pugnacious. He said he has assurances from Bourla that Pfizer remains on course to deliver four million doses by the end of March.
On this one, Trudeau has read the public mood correctly and still retains broad support.
“(Vaccine supply) is what I'm thinking about when I wake up, when I go to bed and every hour in between,” he said.
That focus reflects what most people are thinking day and night, and should see the prime minister through this supply shortfall — as long as it is as momentary as he suggests it is.
The third imbroglio is the furious response of a number of provincial premiers to President Joe Biden's decision to cancel permits for the Keystone XL pipeline.
Predictably, Alberta's Jason Kenney and Saskatchewan's Scott Moe blasted Trudeau in a first ministers' call on Thursday. But sources suggest they were supported by Quebec's Françcois Legault and Doug Ford, who said Canada must stand up to “bully” tactics.
The concern for all premiers is that the Keystone cancellation was a campaign commitment, and so is the promise to implement Buy America policies in public procurement, potentially cutting out Canadian suppliers.
Kenney made public a letter written to Trudeau expressing his “profound disappointment” at the federal response, despite repeated requests for the prime minister's “personal intervention”. The Keystone decision offers a “deeply disturbing precedent” for other projects, he said, accusing Ottawa of “surrendering our vital economic interests.”
Kenney sounded increasingly forlorn, urging Trudeau to invoke “proportionate economic consequences” in the form of economic sanctions, which he won't do, and to press Biden for compensation for costs incurred on Keystone (not least by the province), which one supposes he might.
Trudeau was scheduled to speak to Biden early on Friday evening. His best course is to use acquiescence over Keystone as leverage to strike a deal with the president over energy security and integration.
He should also attempt to obtain an exemption from Buy America policies. In 2009, Harper and Barack Obama agreed to allow reciprocal access to each other's post financial crisis stimulus packages.
A similar arrangement could be reached as postCOVID stimulus funds become accessible.
On oil, despite the cancellation of Keystone, the U.S. relies on Canada for more than half its imported oil — and that amount is rising as other pipelines south increase their capacity. Oil production in western Canada is set to rise this year to 4.45 million barrels per day, up from 3.9 million bpd last year, with most exported to the U.S.
The U.S. needs that oil, as well as excess clean electricity that Canada can provide.
No reasonable person thinks that Biden is going to reverse himself on Keystone but Trudeau does have chips with which he can bargain.
If he plays them shrewdly, voters might overlook the mess he made of the governor general's appointment.