Roundup: Reassigning Fantino

Posted on by

In some ways, it was a big surprise because it’s almost – almost – like Stephen Harper was admitting he made a mistake with regards to his choice for veterans affairs minister. But it wasn’t entirely that – just a bit of a shuffling of the deck. Without really summoning press to Rideau Hall yesterday, the PM shuffled Julian Fantino out of Veterans Affairs, and put newcomer Erin O’Toole in his place. But lest you think that Fantino has had his day in cabinet and he can quietly disappear into the backbenches, no – Harper found him a new home. Technically it’s his old home as Associate Minister of Defence, but instead of being on the procurement file, as he was previously, now he’s been charged with Arctic sovereignty, cyber-defence and foreign intelligence. Let’s remember that when Fantino was previously on that job, he had the F-35 fiasco blowing up around him. Then Veterans Affairs fell apart around him when he was in that portfolio. And if his lack of interpersonal skills was a big part of the failure at Veterans Affairs, he’s going to be in charge of a fairly diplomacy-heavy role with Arctic Sovereignty? Really? Same thing with foreign intelligence and CSE. You want a notoriously poor communicator to deal with those questions? Really? (My other thought is about what this says about confidence in the abilities of Rob Nicholson if the PM need to split off some of his duties to hand them over to an Associate Minister). As for the veterans file, it’s going to be an uphill battle for O’Toole, who is an immeasurably better communicator than Fantino or his parliamentary secretary, Parm Gill, ever were, but he’s still constrained by the policy of the day, and the spending restraints that the government has imposed across the board. Sure, he may be able to communicate better and maybe not alienate his stakeholders to the same extent that Fantino did, but if he can’t really change what’s really ailing the department, it is likely to just be a fresh coat of paint and little else. Paul Wells shares a few thoughts about what the PM might have been thinking.

Good reads:

  • Glen McGregor finds more instances of the Department of Heritage using stock photos from non-Canadian photographers, used to promote Canadian culture.
  • Matthew Fisher writes about the Liberals’ need for a more coherent defence policy.
  • Liberal deputy leader Ralph Goodale blogs about MPs needing to fix the Estimates process, and budget votes.
  • Paul Boothe writes a very interesting piece about the creeping subjectivity of “value for money” audits conducted by Auditors General.
  • Stephen Harper finally had that meeting with Kathleen Wynne.
  • The government continues to fight in court to overturn the decision allowing expats to vote even after five years abroad.

Odds and ends:

Stephen Blaney touted the success of his “Wanted by CBSA” programme in getting deportations. Um, he is aware of the problems that very same programme has caused, right?

Shared Services Canada, which supplies IT services for a number of government departments, has blocked access to Blacklock’s Reporter, one of the news sites that I write for. Apparently wonkish regulatory stories and Supreme Court coverage are as harmful for bureaucrats as porn sites.