Dispatch Box: Getting to the Centre of Power in Ottawa
Political and governmental power has become increasingly centralized in Ottawa. And enormous power and influence radiates from the prime minister.
The current federal cabinet has 30 members, but it’s awfully hard to have an effective executive meeting with 30 people. For that reason, the full cabinet rarely meets and, when it does, typically it simply ratifies decisions already made in cabinet committees.
One cabinet committee stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of power and importance: the Committee on Agenda, Results and Communications (formerly called Priorities and Planning, or P&P, by past governments). ARC is chaired by the prime minister and provides strategic direction and advice on government priorities coming from the prime minister, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Privy Council Office. ARC also coordinates and ultimately approves the work and recommendations of all the other cabinet committees.
ARC can thus be seen as an “inner cabinet,” the executive leadership committee of the cabinet. Here are the key power holders in Ottawa, as of December 2021:
| Chair: | Justin Trudeau | Prime Minister |
| Vice-Chair: | Chrystia Freeland | Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance |
| Members: | Bill Blair | President of the Queen’s Privy Council and Minister of Emergency Preparedness |
| Ahmed Hussen | Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion | |
| Mélanie Joly | Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| Dominic LeBlanc | Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities | |
| Mary Ng | Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development | |
| Carla Qualtrough | Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion | |
| Pablo Rodriguez | Minister of Canadian Heritage |
Some of these names are probably familiar, others less so. Do you see considerations of regional, linguistic, gender, or sociocultural representation in the make-up of this committee? Note that while women make up 50 per cent of the current federal cabinet they also account for half of the ministers of this inner cabinet, not counting the prime minister.
Source: https://pm.gc.ca/en/cabinrt-committee-mandate-and-membership.
