Government by ticking the boxes
Having your cabinet look more like Canada is not a bad thing.
In fact, it is a very good thing, if the members of that cabinet are able and experienced.
The problem for Justin Trudeau is that his government is increasingly open to the charge that it is governing by optics — that it has put people in place because they tick boxes, rather than because they have the ability and experience to run complicated government departments.
In November 2015, the new prime minister promised a government based on trust and teamwork that would deliver evidence-based policy.
Yet after more than 500 days in office, the record of achievement is decidedly mixed. The website TrudeauMeter tracks how many of the government’s election commitments have been achieved. It suggests just 44 of 224 promises have been enacted; 30 have been broken; 63 are in progress and 87 have not been started.
Among the broken pledges are some whoppers — keeping deficits to $10 billion a year for three years; electoral reform; holding a competition to replace the CF-18 fighter jets.
Behind the photo opportunities, there is an instability to this government that is becoming ever more apparent to the general public.
Anyone watching Question Period last Thursday must have come away with grave concerns about the competence of the party in power.
Rona Ambrose, the interim Conservative leader, attacked the government in predictable fashion over the defence minister’s “embellishment” of his service record in Afghanistan.
In Trudeau’s absence, the calls for Harjit Sajjan’s resignation were fielded by … Harjit Sajjan.
Quite why he has not sent him on an urgent mission to Timbuktu is unclear, but it was cruel and unusual punishment for the defence minister to have to rise time and again and attempt to deflect calls for his head by blaming the Harper government for “the mess” the Liberals inherited.
The tumult on the opposition benches grew the more Sajjan bumbled and flapped his way through answers that were often barely audible.
The Speaker, Geoff Regan, called for order, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
Liberal MP Filomena Tassi rose on a point of order after question period to complain about the amount of heckling and unparliamentary conduct, until she too was drowned out by the boo-boys.
A further point of order by Conservative MP Michelle Rempel complained that the heckling would stop if only ministers gave “real and relevant” answers — a rich complaint in light of her own government’s decade of parliamentary smog.
But there is a sense in Parliament that the Liberals are in trouble because of their own self-inflicted mistakes, such as the attempt to unilaterally change the standing orders.
As is their mandate, the opposition parties are trying to add to those woes by slowing down the passage of legislation and hounding weaker ministers from office.
They have been greatly aided in the former task by the unintended consequences of a key Trudeau campaign commitment — the non-partisan process to make Senate appointments. Many of the new senators are keen to prove how non-partisan they are by sending government legislation back to the House of Commons with lengthy amendments.
The sheer number of suggested changes indicates many Liberal bills were poorly drafted in the first place. Back in the House Thursday, Nathan Cullen, the B.C. New Democrat, pointed to a howler in the latest omnibus budget bill. He pointed out that the legislation would give the government the power to block the Parliamentary Budget Officer from working on subjects not to its liking.
Bardish Chagger, the Government House Leader (who is also responsible for the attempt to change the rules of Parliament), said the Liberals are, in fact, trying to increase the independence of the PBO — an argument at odds with the wording in the legislation.
The opposition side erupted in howls of derision at Chagger’s suggestion that the government is open to amendments. Their experience is that this is a minister not keen on compromise.
While senior government ministers were reduced to the status of children’s entertainers, the rest of the Liberal caucus looked on with anxiety and apprehension.
It was only when the reassuring figure of Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale rose to say the government will be there to backstop flooding losses that confidence seeped back onto the Liberal side.
The reminder that the Liberal party’s reason for being is to take the fear out of everyday life had a restorative effect, at least temporarily.
But make no mistake, this is a government around which the waters are rising.
Internal resources are thinly spread. Jim Carr is currently running the departments of Natural Resources and Public Services (minister Judy Foote is on compassionate leave), with just one chief of staff.
The distraction provided to senior advisers in the Prime Minister’s Office by events in Washington has given rookie ministers the leeway to make the mistakes that rookie ministers make.
Too many holes are appearing in the dike for them to be patched up properly. There is an acute need for the reset button to be pressed, in the form of a prorogation, a cabinet shuffle and a new Throne Speech this fall.
For the Liberals, the summer break can’t come soon enough.