MICHAEL PITFIELD
‘He was the guiding force’
April 17, 1982, was one of the most important days in Canadian history.
Sitting in the shadow of the Peace Tower, Canada’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth, and head of government, prime minister Pierre Trudeau, prepared to sign the constitutional proclamation, the final act in granting Canada full sovereignty.
And there, too, was Michael Pitfield, clerk of the Privy Council, pointing helpfully as if to say, “Sign here, Your Majesty.”
It seemed to be ever that way for Pitfield, though never elected, just a half step from the centre of power. A brilliant intellectual, he rose to the height of government and became one of Trudeau’s closest confidants. He was a mystery man in dark-rimmed glasses who straddled the nexus of politics and government, a bureaucrat who was nevertheless a household name among Canadians.
Pitfield died Oct. 18 and was buried Friday in his hometown of Montreal. He was 80.
“He was the guiding force on a whole series of changes that I think still characterize the modern civil service. He’s an absolutely seminal figure,” said Tom Axworthy, who as Trudeau’s principal secretary, met daily at 9:15 a.m. with Pitfield and the prime minister.
Born in 1937, Pitfield grew up in Westmount and was an outstanding student. He graduated from high school at age 13 and university at 16. After studying law at McGill, he began his career in government in 1959 under Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker.
Trudeau appointed him clerk of the Privy Council, the top post in the public service, in 1975. He was 37, the youngest person to have ever held the post.
The two men were friends from their days in Montreal, when Trudeau taught law. Each admired the other’s intellect and devotion to logic and reason.
“I don’t think I’m a slouch in intelligence, but to see Pitfield and Trudeau getting into the issues, that was really wonderful to watch,” Axworthy said. “Those two had brilliant, analytical minds. You’d see these two computers just twirling away on issues.
“But they each realized that there was more to life than logic, and that’s why they had the occasional PMO ‘hack-arounds,’ ” said Axworthy (declining to elaborate on what a PMO hack-around was.) “They recognized the world didn’t run on logic. They may have hoped it did, but it did not.”
Pitfield worked tirelessly to better government. He instituted a “mirror committee” of deputy ministers to add more voices and information to debates. As secretary to cabinet, he worked to make the cabinet operate collectively, where all ministers could have their say.
There were criticisms that Trudeau and his clerk were too close, something that Axworthy said wasn’t true. At the morning meetings, Pitfield was scrupulously impartial.
“I would have my political things to bring up and things with the Liberal party, and Michael would have his, and he never, ever traversed that line. He was always conscious of the separate roles.”
Pitfield “stayed as far away from the politics of the Liberal party as you could imagine,” said Michael Kirby, a former senator who was Trudeau’s secretary to cabinet on federal provincial relations during the Constitution debate. Kirby stood alongside Pitfield that day on Parliament Hill, helping steady the papers in the wind as the Queen and the prime minister signed.
In his heyday, Pitfield was famous in a way that seems hard to understand today after a succession of prime ministers have centralized power and downplayed the role of bureaucrats.
“In those days, there were three or four public servants that got phenomenal press, particularly in Ottawa. That doesn’t seem to happen anymore,” Kirby said.
Outside of government work, Kirby remembered Pitfield as a loving husband to his wife, Nancy, who died in 1999, and their three children: Caroline, Tom (a key strategist in the Justin Trudeau campaign) and Kate.
“Everyone knows about his accomplishments and his intelligence, but the father side you just don’t see,” Kirby said. “There were many nights when I would leave the office and go home with him. He would play with the kids until bed. He and Nancy and I would have dinner, and then we would work together in his study for two or three hours more.
“I’ve got to tell you, he was a great father. He had a way with young children that was great to see.”
When Joe Clark was elected in 1979, he fired Pitfield as clerk — a critical mistake, in Axworthy’s opinion.
“Michael had such a comprehensive view and was so good at anticipating problems that he might well have been able to anticipate a lot of the difficulties that the Clark government had.”
Clark’s government fell the next year and Trudeau reinstated Pitfield as clerk for three more years. Pitfield was appointed to the Senate in 1982.
“Michael showed his real colour when he went into the Senate as an Independent, as a voice for the public service and reason and the things he believed in and not attach himself to any caucus,” Axworthy said.
Though it wasn’t public at the time, Pitfield’s health was beginning to fail. He spoke rarely, was criticized for being “virtually invisible” and fined as a “no-show” senator. In fact, Pitfield had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. He retired from the Senate in 2010.
“(Pierre) Trudeau famously said that his objective was reason, rather than passion,” Axworthy said. “It was Michael Pitfield who built the machine that was to apply the reason to get the results that Trudeau hoped for.
“He was pretty essential to that concept that government can be a force for good and that it could be a rational entity that could plan and improve lives. Michael spent his whole life trying to achieve that.”
To see Pitfield and Trudeau getting into the issues, that was really wonderful to watch. Those two had brilliant minds.