The powerful but largely unseen mandarin who drove the bureaucracy for an impatient prime minister during Stephen Harper's first three years in office will step down as the country's top civil servant in June.
Kevin Lynch, the workaholic with the task of focusing the civil service on Mr. Harper's initial priorities and quarterbacking the government through crises, also clashed with some Conservatives, who viewed him as a too-powerful bureaucrat seeking to put his stamp on policies.
His replacement as Clerk of the Privy Council will be Wayne Wouters, an economist, who, as secretary to the Treasury Board, impressed Mr. Harper with recent success in quickly organizing the approval of funds for government spending plans - a key government focus in this era of stimulus spending.
Mr. Wouters, a down-to-earth, hockey-loving Saskatchewan native, is viewed as an operations "mechanic" who sticks to getting the government agenda through the bureaucratic process - a casual, smiling and well-liked boss and colleague, but one who can occasionally get tough to get action.
"He's basically a consensus builder," one government official said. "But he knows whose balls to squeeze, when, and just how hard."
Mr. Lynch's departure has been rumoured for months, with many speculating that he could replace Michael Wilson as Canada's ambassador to Washington - although friends said yesterday he will not become an ambassador, and plans to leave government.
According to several Conservatives and government officials, there was friction, and something of a power struggle, between Mr. Lynch and Mr. Harper's top political aide, chief of staff Guy Giorno, since Mr. Giorno arrived last summer.
One source who knows both well, however, insisted that has been "overplayed" and that Mr. Giorno appreciated Mr. Lynch's role in managing the first storm of last year's financial meltdown. "I know Guy recognized that," the source said.
Several people close to Mr. Lynch said he knew that clerks rarely last longer than three or four years, and decided the time was ripe after seeing through the first months of recession, the reorganization of civil-service staffing agencies, and after his wife, Karen, retired from her school principal's job last year.
"He sort of ticked off the boxes, and now he'll go do something else," a former associate said.
Mr. Lynch put his stamp on Ottawa during his career. As deputy industry minister, he was a designer of the late 1990s "innovation agenda" of research grants for science and technology, and, as deputy finance minister, was the architect of the major tax-cutting mini-budget of 2000.
Mr. Harper picked him as clerk after the two men hit it off in their first meeting. The cerebral economist was in some ways the Prime Minister's civil service alter-ego.
"He, like the PM, is an impatient, action-oriented, economically minded guy who wanted to get some things done. They got along superbly well," a Tory insider said.
But he also crossed swords with some politicians. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's aides believed he had a heavy hand in their department, and he clashed with Maxime Bernier when he was industry minister over plans for phone-industry de-regulation.
But Mr. Harper's former chief of staff, Ian Brodie, said Mr. Lynch played a key role in "most of the things we accomplished when I was there.
"This was the right guy at the right time for an economic crisis. And he had a huge impact in managing the turnover of the public service," Mr. Brodie said.
