Prime Minister Justin Trudeau looks at Anita Anand after she was sworn in as the President of the Treasury Board during a cabinet shuffle, in Ottawa, on July 26.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Nothing has fuelled the Ottawa rumour mill more this summer than the sudden ejection of Anita Anand from the hot seat she had occupied at National Defence only to find herself condemned to near obscurity as President of the Treasury Board.
Ms. Anand’s move out of the Defence portfolio in last month’s cabinet shuffle, amid efforts to accelerate cultural change in the Canadian Armed Forces and deliver on a critical review of military spending, was a head-scratcher reminiscent of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s shift from Justice to Veterans Affairs in early 2019. There seemed to be no apparent reason for it.
The true motive for Ms. Wilson-Raybould’s move emerged only weeks later when it was revealed that her refusal to intervene to get prosecutors to settle corruption charges against SNC-Lavalin had put her on the wrong side of the fixers in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Ms. Anand seems to have made the same mistake as Ms. Wilson-Raybould in taking her remit seriously, rather than just taking marching orders from the PMO. It takes a unique set of skills to survive in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, and independent thinking is not one of them.
Ms. Anand had her knuckles rapped by the PMO last year for being too indiscreet in exhibiting her ambition to one day succeed Mr. Trudeau as Liberal Party leader. But it was her apparent push for a massive reinvestment in the Canadian military that proved her unmaking at Defence. The proposals contained in her defence policy review were twice rejected by the PMO as “unrealistic and too costly,” according to a report in the Ottawa Citizen.
So much for the promise, included in the 2022 federal budget, to retool Canada’s military.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “has also reminded us that our own peaceful democracy – like all the democracies of the world – depends ultimately on the defence of hard power,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said. “That is why we are making an immediate, additional investment in our armed forces, and propose a swift defence policy review to equip Canada for a world that has become more dangerous.”
Ms. Freeland now has a history of making empty promises on the defence file. As Foreign Affairs minister in 2017, she banged the drums in an ostentatious House of Commons speech that was supposed to signal a major investment in the military.
“To rely solely on the U.S. security umbrella would make us a client state,” she insisted. “Force is of course always a last resort. But the principled use of force … is part of our history and must be part of our future. To have that capacity requires a substantial investment, which this government is committed to making.”
Canada’s allies know what to expect from Mr. Trudeau, who reportedly told NATO officials that this country “will never reach” the 2-per-cent-of-gross-domestic-product threshold for defence spending that is required of member countries.
So it is surprising that Ms. Anand did not.
Campbell Clark: Anita Anand’s tough task to accomplish little
The defence policy review has now been relegated to the safe (meaning motionless) hands of Ms. Anand’s replacement, Bill Blair, who will undoubtedly attend to the matter as diligently as he read his memo on Chinese interference from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as Public Safety minister.
Defiant as ever, Ms. Anand has now sent a letter to her cabinet colleagues telling them they have until Oct. 2 to identify cuts in departmental spending as part of an effort, announced in this year’s budget, to reduce overall expenditures by $15-billion over five years. The leaking of the letter this week to The Globe and Mail shone a spotlight on the Treasury Board, a department the media usually ignores, helping Ms. Anand cultivate the image of a fiscally prudent minister in a government overrun with spendthrifts. That image could help her stand out in a future leadership race, endearing her to Blue Liberals, should any still exist by then.
To that end, Ms. Anand was no doubt delighted to see Public Service Alliance of Canada president Chris Aylward react so coldly to her letter. “The government needs to pause these cuts until it has conducted a whole-of-government review of staffing and service needs, with bargaining agents involved throughout the process,” he insisted, as if a 39-per-cent increase in the size of the federal public service since 2015 is not evidence enough of bloat.
The proposed cuts amount to pocket change in a federal budget that is projected to rise to more than $555-billion by 2027-28 – a projection that would rise substantially if the Liberals launch a national pharmacare program (as their NDP allies are pushing for) and invest in a new affordable-housing plan (as the pollsters tell them they must).
Still, you have got to hand it to Ms. Anand for trying, after all she has been through.
Konrad Yakabuski