Roundup: To give or not to give Sophie resources

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At his session-ender press conference, Trudeau highlighted three carefully chosen accomplishments, gave no additional clarity on the missing and murdered Indigenous women file, and didn’t commit to an open process for fighter procurement. All of that was par for the course, given that it was a lot of back-patting, but also a reminder that there is still a lot of work ahead, and he doesn’t want to look like he’s patting himself on the back too much. What I found more curious was in response to a question that he said that his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, should be able to have resources to carry out the duties that she has set about to undertake, but that he also doesn’t want to create a formal role for prime ministerial spouses going forward so that there is no obligation for the future. There is a certain amount of sense to this position, but it’s a very fine line to walk. Currently, she has one assistant and is given help from PMO staff on an ad hoc basis, as needed. Speculation with the staffing changes made to the household, particularly around nannies, has to do with creating space on the staff for an additional assistant for Grégoire Trudeau, but we have yet to see that materialise. None of it answers the specific existential question however on the role that prime ministerial spouses play. The reluctance to create an official position is a good instinct to have, especially because it bears reminding again and again that we are already a constitutional monarchy, and we have a royal family to take on these particular roles. In fact, the GG and his spouse also take on these kinds of feel-good roles in the absence of a more present royal family, which leaves very little room for a prime ministerial spouse to take it on. What they have to trade in – particularly Grégoire Trudeau – is a kind of celebrity status, especially as the previous few prime ministerial spouses haven’t had much in the way of a career of their own, and for Grégoire Trudeau, it has become her career to be a public speaker at events and for particular charity groups – and there’s nothing wrong with that. It nevertheless makes for a sticky situation with who pays for the help that such a career entails, particularly if it becomes an important optical consideration that she not be paid for the work (and if she were paid, even on a cost-recovery basis, one can already imagine people hissing “how dare she!” on accepting money from charities no matter that it’s the cost of doing business and standard practice). So we are between that proverbial rock and hard place. I don’t have a solution to offer either than to say that there is no winning, and it now becomes a way of finding the least unpalatable option, and that may wind up being what Trudeau is signalling – resources but the explicit rule that this is not formalising the role in any way. His reminding people that we have a royal family for these kinds of things wouldn’t hurt either so that we can stop this constant “First Lady” talk.

Good reads:

  • The NDP have released their final leadership rules, and the final balloting will be a combination of ranked ballot and run-off votes to be held over several days. Huh?
  • Apparently the government is lacking a lot of data that it needs to make “evidence-based policy” on a lot of its platform planks.
  • The CPP enhancement will cost the government some money to offset the burden on low-income earners.
  • Israel’s deal on F-35s with industrial benefits and not paying into the programme has people hoping a similar deal could be reached here.
  • The former head of CSIS says that Canada needs to up its cyber warfare game. Not everyone is convinced we should.
  • MPs can choose not to hold an electoral reform town hall in their riding over the summer, under the threat of voters holding them to account for not doing so.
  • The military has been conducting an internal inquiry in how it handled a sexual assault case where the complainant was drummed out of the service.
  • There are concerns about the disparities between different classes of security guards on the Hill all wearing the same uniforms.
  • The Kandahar Airfield Cenotaph is being rebuilt at the new national defence headquarters complex in Ottawa’s west end.
  • Don Braid lays out a plausible path to power in Alberta for Jason Kenney.

Odds and ends:

A number of women MPs and former candidates gave advice to their 20-year-old selves.

It looks like Stephen Harper may have left Ottawa for good.

Prince Edward and Sophie will be visiting Fort McMurray as part of their working visit.

One thought on “Roundup: To give or not to give Sophie resources”

  1. The issue of Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and her role reminds me of Mila Mulroney who had an office. As for the GG and his spouse, they do a good job but are pretty much out of the public eye and the media does not report much on them. As for the Royals, well they are in Canada once in a while and we would need them to be here full time to have a greater impact. So the role of the wife of the PM comes up she is visible and has personality. Maybe we as Canadians should be more mature about this role.
    As for the issue of indigenous women missing and murdered, this issue has become a political football and the fact the PMJT is now not addressing this question leaves me wondering if we will ever see a resolution to this question.

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