[rad-green] “Chrystia Freeland is now functiona lly the prime minister.” -- Conservative strategist C had Rogers

*https://ipolitics.ca/2019/12/23/cabinet-committee-membership-reinforces-view-of-freeland-as-trudeaus-most-trusted-minister-strategists/
<https://ipolitics.ca/2019/12/23/cabinet-committee-membership-reinforces-view-of-freeland-as-trudeaus-most-trusted-minister-strategists/>*

*iPolitics           Dec 23, 2019*



*Cabinet committee membership reinforces view of Freeland as Trudeau’s most
trusted minister: strategistsBy Marco Vigliotti*

*Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland holds a press conference in
West Block to announce the Canadian Militaries plans on the mission in Mali
on June 14, 2019. Andrew Meade/iPolitics*

Newly minted as the deputy prime minister and minister of intergovernmental
affairs, Chrystia Freeland’s appointment as deputy chair of the
all-important Agenda, Results and Communications Cabinet Committee
reinforces her elevated role among her ministerial peers and signals that
she’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s most trusted advisor, say
strategists.

And the streamlining and realignment of cabinet committees by Trudeau in
advance of the 43rd Parliament hints at a sharpened focus on delivering
policy, rather than optics, according to some pundits who spoke to
iPolitics, with one former Conservative staffer saying the committee
responsible for day-to-day coordination of the government’s agenda will
take on additional importance in a non-majority setting.

Mary Anne Carter, a consultant with Earnscliffe Strategy Group, says
Freeland’s appointment of vice-chair for the most important cabinet
committee, “reaffirms the perspective that she is the most senior minister.”

“It remains to be seen how Minister Freeland will develop in her new
position, and the extent to which she will involve herself in the
day-to-day running of major files, but her new ministerial appointment
signals that she will play a lead role in managing important issues from
western alienation, to provincial resistance on federal climate change
initiatives, to continuing to oversee the U.S. relations file,” she told
iPolitics via email.

Cabinet committees are essentially where the hard decisions of a
government’s front bench are made. Policies or decisions are circulated
through the appropriate committee channels, but all must pass through the
Agenda, Results and Communications (ARC) Committee, which is chaired by the
prime minister, for final approval.

This makes the vice-chair role one of the most important in cabinet,
especially as they are responsible for filling in for the prime minister
when they are out of the country.

Chad Rogers, Conservative strategist and partner with public affairs firm
Crestview Strategy, explained that because of the size of cabinet it would
be “unruly” to hold substantive debates among all members, so the work is
divvied up into various internal and secretive committees.

Membership is decided very strategically, he said, with a focus on the
specific abilities and skillsets of ministers, and ensuring regional,
ideological and linguistic diversity, which, for the sake of the Liberals,
would mean including both native French and English speakers, and both
progressive and more-centrist members.

For Rogers, valuable cabinet committees members are those who can handle
hefty additional reading, or drive productive conversations around the
table. But since the material presented at these committees is highly
sensitive and secretive, ministers only have a limited amount of time to
read through often complex material, making it vital that committee members
are quick studies and good at asking critical questions, he explained. For
example, a cabinet document has to be carried in a locked briefcase, Rogers
noted.

He argued that Freeland’s elevation to vice-chair of ARC signals that
Trudeau is “ceding the serious part of his work” to his deputy prime
minister amid anger from his caucus over how the last campaign was managed. “He
no longer has the mandate he had before and he’s got to have a buffer,” he
explained in an interview. “Chrystia Freeland is now functionally the prime
minister.”

Of course, the Liberals lost their majority standing in the House in this
past fall’s vote, dropping from 184 seats in 2015 to 157.

Elliott Hughes, a Liberal strategist and senior advisor with Summa
Strategies, disagreed with Rogers’ sentiment, saying Trudeau’s leadership
style has always been about spreading out work and responsibility to
trusted hands in caucus.

“The prime minister’s wise enough … [to understand] that he’s got a very
strong team around him to ensure that they are utilized and playing an
important role in decision making, and not including them in decision
making going forward would be to the detriment of good policy and good
outcome,” he said.

“I see that more as a demonstration of his leadership, rather than perhaps
an old-style type leadership rule, where it’s the iron fist. I see this as
a much more aware type of leadership and let’s bring everybody, let’s lift
everybody up together, and let’s let everybody have a say because the
people that are chipping in know what they’re talking about,” he continued.

Hughes also pointed to the reduced number of cabinet committees, which have
been slashed to seven from 10, as a signal that the Trudeau government will
be “much more focused” with its legislative priorities and less preoccupied
with “optics.”

“I think it’s reflected in a streamlined focused approach, a more work
person-like … approach to getting down to business,” he explained, citing
the straightforward titles of the committees that have been stripped of
campaign rhetoric, such as Operations, Treasury Board, Economy and
Environment, Reconciliation, Health and Social Affairs, and Global Affairs
and Public Security.

Marc Desmarais, vice-president of government relations with National and a
federal Liberal candidate in the 2015 election, also argued that
streamlining the number of cabinet committees and renaming them is a
response to the message sent by the electorate in the October vote.

Under the former Liberal government of Jean Chrétien, he noted that there
were only four cabinet committees.

“This is a different government now. It’s a minority government situation,
and they received the message from from the public on what they need to
work on and I think the cabinet committees are focused on that,” he said.

However, Desmarais said he wanted to see full membership lists or
spelled-out mandates to gain a firmer sense of the focus of these
committees.

Neil Brodie, a vice president with Bluesky Strategy Group and chief of
staff to several cabinet ministers in the former Conservative government,
said that when Stephen Harper was prime minister, the second most important
committee was the Cabinet Committee on Operations, and it will be “even
more important for Trudeau” in this Parliament.

That’s because the committee, if it has the same mandate as it did under
Harper, handles the “day-to-day” coordination of the government’s agenda,
he said, including “issues management, legislation, anything pertaining to
House planning and communication.”

Veteran politicians Dominic LeBlanc and Pablo Rodriguez are in “great
positions” as chair and vice-chair of the Cabinet Committee of Operations,
according to Brodie, as they’ll be responsible for planning the
“legislative calendar,” which he noted is “fraught with uncertainty” in a
minority government setting.

“Having those two stick-handle House planning, issues management and
communications of this government shows Mr. Trudeau’s level of confidence
in those two ministers,” he explained.

He also noted that Freeland’s role as vice-chair of ARC, but also her role
as chair of the Cabinet Committee on Economy and the Environment,
reinforces that she’s a “heavy hitter in this government right now.”

Hughes, as well as Desmarais, also singled out Freeland’s chair
responsibilities for the Cabinet Committee on Economy and the Environment,
saying it’s a position that could have been occupied by Finance Minister
Bill Morneau.

“I think it just further demonstrates Minister Freeland’s importance in
this government,” Hughes added

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