Chrystia Freeland released another policy statement/promise yesterday which says that she will cut the size of Cabinet and the PMO in half—both to make Cabinet more efficient, and to give ministers more control over their files, rather than PMO dictating everything for them. While on the one hand, every incoming prime minister has promised to cut the size of Cabinet and then it starts to grow over time, I also suspect this is a bit of a screw you to Katie Telford, who runs Trudeau’s PMO, and who selects the chief of staff for all ministers with her own loyalists, and who has been a bottleneck for so much of this government’s business as it flows through her office. Caucus has been calling on Trudeau to get rid of Telford for a while now, correctly identifying her as the source of some of their problems (including the fact that she is in the caucus room taking notes, which was never the case under previous leaders), and Freeland appears to be heeding those concerns as endorsements pile up (mostly for Carney).
As Liberal Leader and your Prime Minster, I will have a smaller, more effective Cabinet and Prime Minister's Office. Please see my full statement below. https://t.co/OX0nImMAZ4 pic.twitter.com/4tQw816wic
— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) January 29, 2025
I do think it’s a fairly bold plan, and it reminds me of Trudeau’s initial attempt to have a “government by Cabinet” in the early days, but all ministers are not created equal, and gradually PMO started to exert more control for many of those ministers who were having trouble managing their files. It also looks like Freeland would be reverting to an older model of having the hard cap of twenty ministers, while additional responsibilities would be filled by ministers of state, which is also essentially how the UK operates, where there is a hard cap on Cabinet, but there are numerous junior ministers. Trudeau did away with this and made everyone a full minister as part of the gender parity promise, given that it would be likely that there would be an imbalance between how many women were in senior versus junior portfolios, and by making everyone a full minister, they also got a full minister’s salary. It seems clear in Freeland’s promise that she feels this was bloating Cabinet, particularly as Trudeau made it the practice that all appointments and Orders in Council needed to be presented to the full Cabinet, which took up a lot of time and focus. Does that mean that a lot will change if junior positions are restored? I guess it will depend on her leadership style if she’s successful, but it is an interesting signal nevertheless.
I will also note that Freeland has been consistently putting out these kinds of statements, unlike Carney. Meanwhile, Ruby Dhalla is turning out to be a clown show of braggadocious claims that the online right is amplifying.
If only we all had $350,000 to burn on what amounts to street theatre. https://t.co/e4fkz5nlC0
— Alheli Picazo (@a_picazo) January 29, 2025
Ukraine Dispatch
The Russians claim to have taken control of Novoielyzavetivka in the Donetsk region, near Pokrovsk. An overnight Ukrainian drone attack hit an oil pumping station and a missile storage facility, while a drone attack has hit Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery in Kstovo. Ukraine’s corruption watchdog has opened an investigation into the defence minister over a procurement dispute.
https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1884525942229364847
Russian drone attack on residential building in Sumy injures 7, including child.
A Russian drone struck a residential building in the northeastern city of Sumy overnight on Jan. 30, injuring at least seven people, local authorities reported.https://t.co/jYXrXEzF26
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) January 30, 2025
Good reads:
- Trump’s pick for commerce secretary says the tariff threats are “action” on the border, and there could be other tariffs in April (because they’re incoherent).
- Responses to any tariffs may come at a faster pace than usual, which normally involves industry consultation but may not be an option at this point.
- David McGuinty will be heading to Washington to plead the case that there is a fentanyl crackdown happening in Canada, and that the tariffs aren’t necessary.
- Mark Miller says that Ukrainians on temporary resident permits need to renew those permits as they expire, but doesn’t plan to send them back to Ukraine.
- The federal government is overhauling its disaster relief programmes, with an aim to speeding up the flow of money, as it normally involves reimbursements.
- The new president of CBC wants a “national conversation” on the Conservatives’ pledge to defund the CBC and what that would mean (especially for Radio-Canada).
- Here is some discussion on Justice Hogue’s recommendation about creating a standalone agency to combat foreign interference.
- Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of the Quebec City mosque shooting.
- Liberal-turned-Independent MP Han Dong says he plans to run again, and wants the Liberals to let him back into caucus now that the Hogue Report cleared him.
- The NDP are demanding that Mark Holland use the federal-provincial health ministers’ meeting to sign everyone up to pharmacare (because it only takes will).
- Danielle Smith thinks that Canada needs its own “border czar,” which is an idiotically stupid Americanism that doesn’t fit within our political structure.
- Outgoing BC lieutenant-governor Janet Austen is set to perform her final ceremony.
- Kevin Carmichael parses the Bank of Canada’s rate decision, and their warning that they have limited tools when it comes to cushioning the blow from a trade war.
Odds and ends:
I was on Canadaland talking Doug Ford and his premature election.
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