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OTTAWA — Days after the federal election, Prime Minister Mark Carney stepped into the National Press Theatre and did something Canadians hadn’t seen in nearly 10 years under Justin Trudeau: he started the press conference virtually on time.
Carney’s punctuality was a stark contrast with Trudeau, who would frequently start events 30 to 60 minutes later than planned. It is also one of many emerging differences in how the former central banker runs his office, cabinet and caucus compared to his predecessor.
National Post spoke with a half dozen current and former PMO officials, senior bureaucrats and caucus members. All were granted anonymity to discuss internal workings of government openly.
They described Carney as extremely focused on delivering an ambitious agenda of reshaping the Canadian economy in the era of U.S. Donald Trump. He is fiercely punctual, runs a tight ship during meetings and is very decisive — all marked differences from his predecessor.
Gone is the indecision that marred Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office, with important decision documents often sitting weeks or months on the desk of chief of staff Katie Telford. Some bottlenecks still exist, but they are more the product of an understaffed prime minister’s office (PMO) serving a political neophyte.
“Decision-making is not a problem,” said one senior government official, describing Carney as “task focused” and for whom results matter.
“He does not suffer fools,” the official added, a common refrain among all sources in this story.
Carney also cares deeply about professionalism in his office. Staff are expected to dress in formal business attire and documents are to be written using British spelling, for example.
But the prime minister is already bearing the signs of a potential micromanager, wanting to review or rework documents or communications products that should be well below the purview of a prime minister.
He is also short on patience and highly demanding of his advisors, senior bureaucrats and cabinet members while not afraid of calling out underperforming members of his entourage.
Whereas there was a sense among Trudeau’s entourage and office that he would give people “multiple kicks at the can” if they provided a sub-par briefing or weren’t on top of their files, sources say Carney is not so patient. Get it right the first time or risk not being called on for that topic again.
Carney filled half of his 28-person cabinet with new faces last week, but all the sources say no one’s job — not even veteran ministers — is safe. If ministers don’t perform to Carney’s expectations or fail to find ways to deliver on their mandates quickly, they may not last the year at the table.
“Carney will call out ministers if needed,” said one senior former Liberal who worked in both the Trudeau and Carney governments. “And he will probably call them personally to do it. Trudeau never called his ministers.”
One Liberal MP even theorized that there could be a cabinet shuffle in less than one year.
“This guy will not have patience, and that’s the thing. That’s why we think there will be a shuffle at some point in the next eight months, or something, not within the next eight months, but in like eight months time, or something like that, less than a year,” a Liberal MP said.
“If you’re that ambitious as a leader, you’re not going to have a lot of time for people who are failing at their files. He’s going to find replacements, you would think, but let’s see,” the MP added.
As a new politician, sources say Carney is not yet fully aware of what he needs and doesn’t need to know. The result is that he will ask to read documents that the prime minister shouldn’t need to review or generate an abundance of back-and-forths demanding staff rewrite briefing notes to his liking, two sources detailed.
“He’s too deep into details already,” said the former Liberal staffer, adding they were frequently surprised by some of the material Carney demanded to see.
Another concern among Liberals is that days before the House of Commons is set to resume, Carney’s office is still surprisingly understaffed.
The prime minister has still not confirmed who will be his permanent chief of staff after temporarily appointing former minister Marco Mendicino to the position back in March. Thursday evening, Carney announced that Mendicino had extended his term “into the summer” to “lead the transition of the PMO on my behalf.”
The chief of staff oversees staffing through the PMO but also has a heavy hand in selecting ministers’ chiefs, who then have to fill all the vacancies in their minister’s office. Most of those decisions have been on hold while Carney decided who would be his top aide going forward.
It’s not unusual that PMO and ministers’ offices aren’t fully staffed less than one month after the new prime minister was elected. But all the sources said it becomes problematic when the new prime minister wants move at near-record speed, forming cabinet within two weeks and recalling Parliament within four.
Multiple sources described the state of PMO as a “s–tshow” as key staff who worked with Carney before and during the election wait to see which job they will be offered during this Parliament.
They point to the lack of clear leadership at PMO as explanation for the “disastrous” first outing of Carney’s cabinet on May 18 where numerous ministers made controversial or headline-generating statements .
One senior government official said that the issues at PMO mean that decisions are being made, but implementing them can be difficult.
“The PMO is not even settled yet. So, they’re figuring stuff out and how to do stuff, but they are quick on decisions and on recognizing the decisions that need to be made. And so, the corollary on that is that once a decision is made, they expect action to be taken… which could be a challenge,” said the veteran official.
Another key challenge is Parliament. Many Liberals feel that Carney doesn’t fully grasp the challenges of leading a minority government through a fractured House of Commons and a Senate without a Liberal caucus.
Without a clear majority, a governing party must negotiate with opposition MPs to get their bills through both the House of Commons and committees. If it fails to do so, effective opposition parties can take over the agenda of the Commons or some committees (or both) and stonewall the government’s legislative agenda.
Sources point to the scars of last fall’s parliamentary session. Shortly after Trudeau and ex-NDP leader Jagmeet Singh ripped up their supply and confidence agreement last summer, the minority Liberals totally lost control of the House of Commons.
From September until prorogation in January, the Liberals were virtually unable to pass any legislation because the House of Commons was dominated by opposition-led parliamentary privilege debates.
At the same time, opposition parties were able to seize the agenda of multiple committees to launch studies into embarrassing topics for the Liberals.
Senior Liberals say if Carney, who frequently boasts of being a newbie politician, doesn’t surround himself with Commons connoisseurs, his agenda risks being derailed the same way.
They say that recent comments by Carney suggest to them that he doesn’t fully grasp the challenge at hand as his party sits two seats shy of a majority in the House of Commons.
“We received more votes than anyone else in any election,” Carney told reporters last week when asked if he expects to govern like he heads a majority government.
“We’re governing for all Canadians, all regions, with a strong and clear mandate that came out of the election, and that’s how we will govern.”
National Post with files from Catherine Lévesque.
cnardi@postmedia.com
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