I really thought Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be preparing to step aside by now. Between plummeting poll numbers, challenges with policy implementation, and family pressures, it looked as if this fall would be a good time to take the figurative walk in the snow and move on from the leadership. It would allow a year for a leadership race and a year for a new leader to prepare to face the electorate.
I was clearly wrong. Trudeau appears to be as determined as ever to remain in the role of prime minister and his party appears prepared to support him.
In that case, the clock is ticking. With roughly two years remaining before the next federal election is expected, it isn’t impossible for the Trudeau government to turn its public support numbers around but it is going to take some effort. Those years will pass quickly though, and governments tend not to be able to turn on a dime.
For the past year, the government has appeared to be drifting. There hasn’t been a sense of common direction among the Liberal members and ministers. Ministries appear to be coasting along with policy initiatives that appear half-baked at times and seem to come out of nowhere. They don’t seem unified. There is clearly a gulf in leadership within the government.
One way of trying to revitalize a government that has become stale is to shuffle the cabinet. Trudeau did just that in July as he changed the faces in several key positions on the government front lines. Since then, it appears he hasn’t followed up with them. New people are in the top roles, but they seem as disoriented as ever.
It was revealed this week that mandate letters still haven’t been issued to the new cabinet members.
Mandate letters offer high-level guidance to new cabinet ministers. The letters dictate general policy goals and tell the ministers what the prime minister is expecting of them in the new role. They are crucial in ensuring the cabinet and prime minister’s office are working toward common goals. The Liberal members who found themselves newly appointed to cabinet or shuffled into new portfolios have been working without such letters for months. They surely have an idea of where the government wants to go with policy but don’t have solid guidelines, and it shows.
Provincial governments have taken a mixed approach to sharing mandate letters with the public.
Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith has embraced the precedent set by Trudeau’s transparency in mandate letters. Her government stages press events to publicly release them.
There is no doubt these letters are important for governments whether they are shared in public or not. With every further week Trudeau drags his feet in creating these letters for his cabinet, his government drifts a little more out of his control and will be harder to unify to move in a common direction.
The government needs to present a fresh face to Canadians as it enters its third year in power since the last election. Staying on the current course is a sure path to electoral defeat as a growing number of Canadians are losing faith in the government’s ability to address their needs.
Trudeau has appeared as if he wants to put off the task. He has been travelling the nation and indeed the world lately to make appearances at countless events, but he seems to be markedly absent when it comes to managing the members of his own government.
Mandate letters are a powerful tool for government leaders. If they are crafted right, they will lend direction to the cabinet and the public will be able to garner a sense that the government is in control.
Currently, the government is moving like a ship with no captain. The crew is keeping it right side up but hasn’t a good sense of the direction it’s supposed to go in. Large ships don’t turn quickly or easily. If Trudeau doesn’t take the helm of his cabinet soon, his ship could be sinking.
