Fantino looks like a dead man walking, and that's a problem for Harper

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When Julian Fantino was handed the Veterans Affairs portfolio, some who had worked with him thought: this is perfect.

The former police chief spent his life in uniform. He tirelessly attended ceremonies. He's passionate about service. He wants to fix problems. It fit.

Now, politically, he looks like a dead man walking.

For Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that's a conundrum. Mr. Fantino, 72, has become a national liability, a symbol of poisonous relations with veterans. But he's a local asset, in politically crucial Toronto suburbs, in Ontario's Italian-Canadian community and in a strategic riding, Vaughan. The PM won't cut him loose easily.

Mr. Harper sent former chief of defence staff Walt Natynczyk to be his deputy minister, to fix the department. Then he sent his own director of media relations, Stephen Lecce, to act as the minister's chief of staff, to fix the minister's image.

He was once a star candidate, after a high-profile policing career. But politics is different. As chief of four Ontario police forces, Mr. Fantino was often controversial, but he had leeway, and his image as a straight-talking cop made him a love-him-or-hate him figure, but mostly, popular. As one of Mr. Harper's ministers, he's been forced to follow gaffes with silence, or the rote reading of scripted responses.

That's about all he could do in the Commons this week as opposition MPs, day after day, called on the PM to fire him. They accused Mr. Fantino of turning a deaf ear to veterans' concerns. When he did break from the script Thursday, telling opposition MPs that "it is very difficult to get through to people who are not listening," they erupted in laughter and pointed back at him.

Clearly, Veterans Affairs was a problem portfolio before Mr. Fantino. Veterans had complaints about complex bureaucracy, unfair rules and a 2006 reform that provided injured veterans with lump-sum settlements rather than life-long payments. There were, with a wave of Afghanistan veterans, more cases of post-traumatic stress disorder and a tragic series of suicides.

But Mr. Fantino has become a symbol. He was caught on camera lecturing veteran Ron Clarke for pointing a finger at him, and scurrying down Parliament's halls away from Jenny Migneault, a veteran's wife.

He presided over budget cuts and office closings. His October response to a Commons committee's recommendations was seen by some veterans as more stalling. He was criticized for being in Italy at veterans ceremonies last week when the Auditor-General issued a critical report on mental-health programs. Then it emerged that the $200-million, six-year fund for mental-health services he'd just announced would actually be spread over 50 years.

"That was a sign of deception," said Don Leonardo, founder of Veterans Canada. Now, he said, Mr. Fantino has lost veterans' confidence.

It's hard to fathom. In the police world, Mr. Fantino rose up the ranks of the Toronto force. He went on to be chief in London, York Region, Toronto and at the Ontario Provincial Police.

There were controversies. And he publicly blasted back at critics. In 2003, when a 15-year-old named Tameka Campbell asked him why police "don't respect black youth" he called it unfair and said, "I don't think it dignifies an answer." But his tough talk was popular and he had a reputation as a no-nonsense chief who got results.

By 2010, politically connected Torontonians buzzed he was a possible candidate for mayor, or the provincial Tory leadership. His friend, then-senator Con Di Nino, led federal Tories in recruiting him.

John Capobianco, a Toronto Tory who also urged Mr. Fantino to run, said he has had an impact for the party. In Toronto suburbs he's a popular figure. And in the Italian-Canadian community, where most used to vote Liberal, he changed habits. "It really made Italian-Canadians look twice, toward the Conservatives," Mr. Capobianco said.

That was critical in the heavily Italian-Canadian riding of Vaughan he wrested from the Liberals in a 2010 by-election. But it goes further: His law-and-order credibility played well in many southern Ontario bedroom communities, key to Mr. Harper's 2011 majority. He drew people to fundraisers, too.

As a minister, however, he's no star. His first post, as junior minister for seniors, was forgettable. In his second, as associate defence minister, mandated to fix procurement, he didn't make headway with generals and bureaucrats. "It was really difficult to tell what impact he had," said David Perry, a Conference of Defence Associations Institute analyst. But he tripped over the purchase of F-35 fighters with conflicting statements about costs and contracts, and was consigned to repeating scripted lines. As international co-operation minister, he surprised Haiti by announcing Canada would freeze aid, later backtracking a bit, and controversially promoted linking aid to Canadian business. He was shuffled in a year.

Mr. Capobianco acknowledged Mr. Fantino has always been polarizing: "He's the kind of guy who shoots from the hip, and that gets him into trouble sometimes. But you're not going to hear double-speak from Julian Fantino." But in politics, that hasn't always been true. He's not Julian Fantino, straight-shooter, talking through gaffes. He's scripted by handlers.

Now, he has a team to help him turn things around. But Mr. Harper has a dilemma. Firing Mr. Fantino damages a political asset in the GTA. But keeping him at Veterans Affairs is a problem, too. The PM now has to wonder if any fixes for veterans' concerns can be sold as long as Mr. Fantino is there.