A big week for Morneau, but not really for Canadians
For former finance minister Bill Morneau, this has been a dramatic week. For the rest of us, not so much.
Morneau went into the week as one of the most powerful ministers in Justin Trudeau’s government. He left without a cabinet job and with his political career in tatters.
The reasons for his departure are murky. It has been reported he had major policy differences with the prime minister. In particular, he is said to have balked at Trudeau’s desire to spend vast sums of money in order to get the economy moving again.
This is a possible scenario, but not a plausible one. As finance minister, Morneau has been delightfully insouciant about running deficits.
He has argued convincingly that, regardless of the federal deficit and debt, Canada has plenty of room to borrow. He has said that if Canada is to make it through the pandemic, the government must be prepared to spend massively.
He has never portrayed himself as a deficit hawk. The idea that he would suddenly do so now beggars belief.
And yet that, it seems, is exactly what various unnamed sources would have us think.
Morneau was competent enough to see the country through the COVID-19 emergency, Trudeau said Tuesday. But now that it’s time to rebuild, it seems a different finance minister is required.
Trudeau’s choice, Chrystia Freeland, is an obvious one. The deputy prime minister is a real force in the Liberal government. She is talented and hard working.
However, her description as Canada’s first female finance minister is a bit overblown. And it might surprise some — including Carole James, British Columbia’s current finance minister; Janet Ecker, Ontario’s finance minister in 2002-03; Joy MacPhail, B.C.’s finance minister in 1998; and Janice MacKinnon, Saskatchewan’s finance minister in the mid ’90s.
But then one of the purposes of this week’s show was to make it seem more memorable than it was. Thus we learned — drum roll — that the government will deliver a speech from the throne next month outlining its plans for the future.
What will those plans be? Trudeau won’t say. But he insists they will be really something.
Given that Trudeau is governing in a hung Parliament, we can be sure that the throne speech will be crafted as a platform for the Liberals should a snap election be called.
We can also surmise, from Trudeau’s repeated evocation of Joe Biden’s clumsy campaign theme, “Build Back Better,” that the Liberals are desperately searching everywhere — including the U.S. Democratic Party — for ideas to put into this throne speech.
In particular, it seems they hope to align themselves with the strong antiTrump mood among Canadian voters.
So, in sum, here’s what we’ve discovered from this week’s events. We’ve learned that it has been a bad few days for Morneau. My guess is that he is not being punished for policy offences. In policy, he faithfully echoed Trudeau.
Rather, he is being punished for political ineptitude. Specifically, he is being punished for failing to understand the optics of accepting gifts from WE Charity. Trudeau made a similar political misstep. But he’s not about to fire himself.
For the rest of us, though, nothing much has changed. We have a new federal finance minister. However, she is expected to stay the fiscal course mapped out by Morneau.
We have a government that, as always, is looking for ideas it can sell to voters. And we have an opposition that, while sanctimoniously baying for blood over the WE affair, is not yet prepared to bring this minority government down.
It’s all pretty much business as usual.
We can be sure that the throne speech coming this fall will be crafted as a platform for the Liberals should a snap election be called