Readers of this column might conclude that I am churlish about the running of our federal government’s parliamentary affairs. Certainly I cannot be accused of issuing warm and cuddly utterances concerning the Prime Minister’s Office.
Now that elections are pending, the time seems right for a refresher in the organizational structure at the executive level of our federal government. The key players at present are the prime minister, 31 ministers of the crown, 16 ministers of state – positions created by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, the president of the Treasury Board and the government leaders in the House of Commons and the Senate. The annual cost of running these 51 offices totals $53.6 million and change. Of these, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) consumes a little more than $8 million.
Prior to Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s arrival, the PMO was involved primarily with the prime minister’s correspondence and arranging his daily activities. The organizing and running of the executive branch of government was done principally through a non-partisan Privy Council Office (PCO). It is charged with providing objective policy advice to the prime minister, acts as secretary to the cabinet and manages the appointment process for senior positions in federal government departments and crown agencies. It is staffed by career public servants. Mr. Trudeau found that the PCO did not meet his particular needs in making policy, particularly where partisanship and politics was involved. And so he expanded the role of the PMO to include provision of policy advice, information gathering, communications, planning, and strategizing – transferring these responsibilities from the PCO. This was particularly important to him when he was focusing on the politics of managing constitutional change, Quebec separatism and 17 per cent interest rates.
Prime Minister Mulroney, concerned initially with controlling the public message from his ministers, maintained the PMO as a central political instrument. He found it indispensible as he pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement and the GST (bless him). Prime Minister Jean Chretien sustained it as he fought against separatism. Prime Minister Paul Martin made the only substantive change when he re-organized the PMO along the lines of the West Wing in Washington. Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to have maintained this structure, which now has 12 directorates including the infamous chief of staff position.
Fortunately, when oligarchic structures, such as the PMO, make strategic errors in a society such as ours, there is no place to hide. Martin found that out when the sponsorship scandal broke. The PMO was a central player in this disaster. Justice John Gomery recommended that its power be reduced.
Harper decided otherwise. And now we have the Senate appointment scandal on top of PMO attacks on the Supreme Court of Canada and the strangling of parliamentary legislative responsibility. If the next prime minister continues the march, started in 1968, of the complete takeover of the Privy Council Office by the PMO, our prime minister will have the powers of King Henry VIII of England.
Ah, to be Thomas Cromwell for a day when that happens.
Alan Murdock is a local pediatrician.
