Complaints about power being centralized in the Prime Minister’s Office have been going around Ottawa since the time of Pierre Trudeau. In that regard, Stephen Harper’s PMO is no different, though it is more controlling than most if not all of its predecessors.
The system actually likes to know who’s in charge, and historically that begins with the PM’s chief of staff, principal secretary or senior policy adviser.
If you want to talk about great PMO leaders, going back half a century, here’s a short list: Tom Kent under Lester B. Pearson, Jim Coutts and Tom Axworthy under Trudeau, Derek Burney and Hugh Segal under Brian Mulroney, Jean Pelletier under Jean Chrétien, with a nod to senior adviser Eddie Goldenberg.
These were all go-to-guys at the centre and the system knew them as problem solvers. They not only enjoyed the confidence of their PMs, but could occasionally speak truth to power, as in: “Sir, that’s a really bad idea.”
Kent was not a manager so much as a man of ideas, and he drove the policy agenda of the Pearson years. The rich legacy of those two minority governments from 1963-68 includes the Canadian flag, health care and the Canada-Quebec pension plans. This was big picture stuff, a lot of it in provincial jurisdiction, but Pearson was the father of cooperative rather than confrontational federalism. And if you were a minister or departmental chief of staff, and wanted to get a paragraph in a throne speech, Kent would have been holding the pen.
Jim Coutts was principal secretary to Trudeau from 1975-81, and on any list of great PMOs, his is right up there. Coutts ran PMO during Trudeau’s third and fourth terms, normally a time when a leader is on the way out. Coutts built an outstanding PMO team that included communications director Dick O’Hagan and press secretary Patrick Gossage. They were in a class by themselves in terms of managing the Ottawa media. Coutts also kept Trudeau focused during the very public breakup of his marriage.
Tom Axworthy, principal secretary from 1981-84, was to Trudeau as Kent was to Pearson — the ideas guy. It was Axworthy who ran the constitutional file in 1981-82 that resulted in patriation and the Charter of Rights. A big idea, and a transformational one.
Derek Burney was Brian Mulroney’s chief of staff for only a year and a half in 1987-88. He was brought in from Foreign Affairs to reorganize not only the PMO, but the government. All the top files crossed his desk on the way to the PM’s briefcase, and he was a critical player in the Canada-US free trade talks. On the phone in the Langevin Block on the night of October 3, 1987, Mulroney asked Burney a simple question about the agreement they had just concluded: “Is this better than what we’ve got?” And Burney fatefully replied: “Yes, Prime Minister.”
In Mulroney’s second term, Hugh Segal came on board as chief of staff and did for Mulroney what he had done for Bill Davis at Queen’s Park — he ran the office efficiently and he knew the Conservative party inside out.
Jean Pelletier ran Chretien’s PMO successfully for nearly a decade, before giving way to Goldenberg. Pelletier was a superb manager and Goldenberg had a horse-and-jockey relationship with the PM.
It was a lot easier running the PMO in the closing decades of the last century than in the early years of the new one. Cellphones weren’t invented until the mid-1980s. The first ones were the size of shoe boxes. All-news television didn’t come to Canada until the end of the 1980s. The Internet didn’t explode until the 1990s. BlackBerry didn’t take off until the 2000s, and social media have multiplied only in the last five years. Today, the prime minister has a Twitter feed.
Anyone who has worked in the Langevin Block wishes Ray Novak well in his new role as the PM’s chief of staff. Until Nigel Wright’s sudden departure last month, Novak was principal secretary, and was known as Stephen Harper’s gatekeeper. Novak is very well liked, but it remains to be seen whether he can steer PMO through the current Senate expense crisis.
The town will find out soon enough. When the House rises for the summer next week, the PMO will have two top items on its agenda — a cabinet shuffle and a throne speech.
The cabinet shuffle is likely to occur in July, to give ministers time to familiarize themselves with their departments and issues before a new session of Parliament in the fall. While the House is scheduled to re-convene in mid-September, the government may well prorogue and begin a new session with a throne speech after Thanksgiving.
While MPs may be leaving town next week, it will be a busy summer in the Langevin Block.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: L. Ian MacDonald
The system actually likes to know who’s in charge, and historically that begins with the PM’s chief of staff, principal secretary or senior policy adviser.
If you want to talk about great PMO leaders, going back half a century, here’s a short list: Tom Kent under Lester B. Pearson, Jim Coutts and Tom Axworthy under Trudeau, Derek Burney and Hugh Segal under Brian Mulroney, Jean Pelletier under Jean Chrétien, with a nod to senior adviser Eddie Goldenberg.
These were all go-to-guys at the centre and the system knew them as problem solvers. They not only enjoyed the confidence of their PMs, but could occasionally speak truth to power, as in: “Sir, that’s a really bad idea.”
Kent was not a manager so much as a man of ideas, and he drove the policy agenda of the Pearson years. The rich legacy of those two minority governments from 1963-68 includes the Canadian flag, health care and the Canada-Quebec pension plans. This was big picture stuff, a lot of it in provincial jurisdiction, but Pearson was the father of cooperative rather than confrontational federalism. And if you were a minister or departmental chief of staff, and wanted to get a paragraph in a throne speech, Kent would have been holding the pen.
Jim Coutts was principal secretary to Trudeau from 1975-81, and on any list of great PMOs, his is right up there. Coutts ran PMO during Trudeau’s third and fourth terms, normally a time when a leader is on the way out. Coutts built an outstanding PMO team that included communications director Dick O’Hagan and press secretary Patrick Gossage. They were in a class by themselves in terms of managing the Ottawa media. Coutts also kept Trudeau focused during the very public breakup of his marriage.
Tom Axworthy, principal secretary from 1981-84, was to Trudeau as Kent was to Pearson — the ideas guy. It was Axworthy who ran the constitutional file in 1981-82 that resulted in patriation and the Charter of Rights. A big idea, and a transformational one.
Derek Burney was Brian Mulroney’s chief of staff for only a year and a half in 1987-88. He was brought in from Foreign Affairs to reorganize not only the PMO, but the government. All the top files crossed his desk on the way to the PM’s briefcase, and he was a critical player in the Canada-US free trade talks. On the phone in the Langevin Block on the night of October 3, 1987, Mulroney asked Burney a simple question about the agreement they had just concluded: “Is this better than what we’ve got?” And Burney fatefully replied: “Yes, Prime Minister.”
In Mulroney’s second term, Hugh Segal came on board as chief of staff and did for Mulroney what he had done for Bill Davis at Queen’s Park — he ran the office efficiently and he knew the Conservative party inside out.
Jean Pelletier ran Chretien’s PMO successfully for nearly a decade, before giving way to Goldenberg. Pelletier was a superb manager and Goldenberg had a horse-and-jockey relationship with the PM.
It was a lot easier running the PMO in the closing decades of the last century than in the early years of the new one. Cellphones weren’t invented until the mid-1980s. The first ones were the size of shoe boxes. All-news television didn’t come to Canada until the end of the 1980s. The Internet didn’t explode until the 1990s. BlackBerry didn’t take off until the 2000s, and social media have multiplied only in the last five years. Today, the prime minister has a Twitter feed.
Anyone who has worked in the Langevin Block wishes Ray Novak well in his new role as the PM’s chief of staff. Until Nigel Wright’s sudden departure last month, Novak was principal secretary, and was known as Stephen Harper’s gatekeeper. Novak is very well liked, but it remains to be seen whether he can steer PMO through the current Senate expense crisis.
The town will find out soon enough. When the House rises for the summer next week, the PMO will have two top items on its agenda — a cabinet shuffle and a throne speech.
The cabinet shuffle is likely to occur in July, to give ministers time to familiarize themselves with their departments and issues before a new session of Parliament in the fall. While the House is scheduled to re-convene in mid-September, the government may well prorogue and begin a new session with a throne speech after Thanksgiving.
While MPs may be leaving town next week, it will be a busy summer in the Langevin Block.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: L. Ian MacDonald
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