Yesterday afternoon, the government finally announced the process by which they will be selecting the next governor general, and it is the return of an advisory panel – but not really the old vice-regal appointment committee process that Stephen Harper initiated. For one, minister Dominic LeBlanc co-chairs the committee along with the interim Clerk of the Privy Council, which is a big change because LeBlanc’s inclusion means it is no longer arm’s length and won’t be able to claim that it can avoid the appearance of considerations being made through a political lens. As well, the Canadian Secretary to the Queen is nowhere to be seen in this process, whereas the previous CSQ chaired the previous committee process. (There has been some disagreement with this over Twitter, which is their prerogative but I would not consider the creation of a short list to be “political advice” any more than any other options presented to a government as compiled by the civil service).

What concerns me is the timeline of this process, which the government claims to want to be “expeditious” because they don’t want to keep the Chief Justice in the Administrator position for long, particularly if we are in a hung parliament that could theoretically fall at any time (if you discount that the only people who actually want an election right now are bored pundits). Nevertheless, it took them a month-and-a-half after Payette’s resignation to just announce the committee. The old committee process took an average of six months to conduct a search and compile a short-list for a vice-regal position, which is really not tenable in the current situation.

If anyone wants to read more about the old process and the role of the Canadian Secretary of the Queen in it, it was part of the focus of my chapter in Royal Progress: Canada’s Monarchy in the Age of Disruption, which was the product of presentations made at the last conference by the Institute for the Study of the Crown in Canada.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau says he is reluctant to implement any kind of “vaccine passports” domestically to avoid discrimination, though internationally is an accepted practice.
• Harjit Sajjan’s appearance at committee was particularly testy, and they also heard from one of the whistleblowers who faced repercussions for forwarding allegations.
• The CRA is suspending some 800,000 accounts because the login credentials were found on the dark web (but they say no accounts were improperly accessed).
• Public servants sent improperly redacted documents as part of a case before the Federal Court, leading to confusion when they wanted them back.
• Here is a deeper dive into why military leaders are well-placed to handle the logistical challenges of things like vaccine roll-outs.
• Mark Carney is making the rounds, touting the opportunity of combatting climate change, and translating the efforts of fighting the pandemic to that next challenge.
• Stephen Harper made a virtual appearance at the defence conference in Ottawa, saying some obvious things about China and the threat it poses.
• Jen Gerson takes apart That Interview and demonstrates how it was carefully constructed as a piece of celebrity brand-building than it was about actual facts.
• Paul Wells gives his read of the state of the Conservative party and Erin O’Toole’s attempt to straddle the different flanks without anyone protecting his flanks.
• Robert Hiltz reflects on the last year, and the cynical ways in which our leaders did as little as possible to help those most impacted by the virus.
• My weekend column looks at the reasons other than the constitutional barriers as to why we’ll never actually abolish the monarchy (not that we want to).

Odds and ends:

If you care about the how Canada's jobs recovery compares to the U.S., this is the chart you should be paying attention to. Despite claims to the contrary, there is no evidence (to date) that our recovery is lagging the U.S.. #cdnecon #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/zPTWsxNKQ7

— Mikal Skuterud (@mikalskuterud) March 12, 2021

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