John Robson: A Shuffled Cabinet Doesn’t Mean Better Governance

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks to a group photo opportunity with his new cabinet following a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on July 26, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Commentary

It’s fun getting new stuff, isn’t it? I feel certain some shiny new stainless steel mixing bowls to replace the shabby old chipped glass ones in my kitchen cabinet will improve my cooking considerably. And the chattering classes are all excited that Canada has a new federal cabinet. Can dazzling policy innovation be far behind?

Perhaps. For one thing, of what looks like 30 new ministers with only eight remaining in place, 23 are incumbents swapping chairs with only seven newcomers. For another, a great many ministers in Canada today do not occupy real posts. For instance, “Minister of Sport and Physical Activity” is not a real job. Nor is “Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities,” especially with health care a provincial responsibility constitutionally.

Speaking of the Constitution, a key reason for this absurd proliferation of ministers is to absorb the legislature into the executive branch with perks ranging from extra salary to a chauffeur to “prestige,” at least inside the fishbowl, not to execute useful policy. And many others, like the supposed “Minister of Families, Children and Social Development,” exist to hand money to citizens to buy votes, also neither a key part of our constitutional heritage nor a desirable innovation. (Nor would the new “Minister of Canadian Heritage” be in favour of that heritage if she knew what it was.)

It’s also a bit of a giveaway that the most senior posts remained in the same hands: Deputy PM/Finance Minister, Foreign Affairs and, in this administration a crucial one, Environment and Climate Change. Also, Prime Minister. And it’s a difficult trick, after eight years in power, to present yourself as the face of change.

Justin Trudeau tried, saying “We are ready to keep delivering on the things that matter most to you – making life more affordable, growing the economy, and creating good jobs for the middle class.” But as I’ve noted before, one peculiarity of his governing style is that whenever he uses the word “continue,” it means he’s been caught ignoring some vital duty.

For instance, “we’re continuing to step up in our NATO commitments … even as we continue to procure the kinds of equipment that the Canadian Armed Forces are going to need to continue to do their work.” And when the incoming Treasury Board president emphasizes “remaining cautious in our fiscal approach,” it’s like me pledging to remain the NBA’s leading shot-blocker.

Now I do not wish to be naive or cause naivete, including about politics. It’s been an ugly mess since the invention of the slogan, partly because of the winner-take-all nature of government, in stark contrast to the market, creates incentives to engage in desperate tactical deceits. And also because of the largely unproductive bickering between Thomas Sowell’s “constrained” visionaries who think reality is tricky and comb the pages of history for rare, precious tried-and-true methods of creating a modicum of peace, order, and good government, and the “unconstrained” who think prosperity and peace the default state of human society, and comb through the ranks of their ideological foes for common, ugly, tried-and-convicted villains deriving material or psychological satisfaction from causing unnecessary suffering.

Justin Trudeau and his associates are overwhelmingly of the latter disposition, and their conviction that achieving great things depends on imagining them first too often shades into imagining them instead. If it were cynical, they’d embarrass a lot more easily. But it works like cynicism, and causes it, because it so often leads them to think image is everything.

As one news story reported, “The federal Liberals want their recent cabinet changes to improve their economic message” because of widespread public unhappiness. To which “constrained” thinkers retort that to improve your economic message you should improve your economic policies, replacing not just the people but the approaches causing trouble, from reckless budgeting to a disastrous “green transition.”

Instead, listen to Anita Anand, shuffled out of defence to become sixth president of the Treasury Board in eight years under Trudeau, which gives some idea of the importance they attach to that position, or to actual knowledge of a portfolio as opposed to ability to imagine world peace or exhibit mindless loyalty. She burbled, “I am very well placed at this moment to join a fantastic economic team and continue to execute on our government’s messages.” Continue. Messages. Great.

Perhaps noticing this unhappy implication, she hastily tacked on that it was also “important for the Treasury Board to continue delivering on our policies.” But that “continue” undercuts everything, signalling that there’s no change of direction or even messaging, just the faces of the PM’s hapless subordinates.

As for me, I’m looking to put those mixing bowls somewhere prominent while I continue to, uh, microwave discount frozen quiche.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.