Dispatch Box: The Politics of the Minister–Deputy Minister Relationship
The politics of the minister–deputy relationship deserves a further comment. Even though deputy ministers are members of the public service, sworn to provide professional and neutral service, sometimes a minister and deputy simply cannot co-exist because of differences of opinion in policy and administrative approaches or desired policy ends. In such circumstances, it is the deputy who must give way. As mentioned earlier, this usually occurs with the election of a new government. A new prime minister or ministers simply may not trust some of the deputy ministers they inherit, believing them to be too closely associated with the initiatives of the former government..
The new prime minister, acting with the advice of the clerk of the Privy Council, may reassign a “questionable” deputy to a different portfolio or another senior position or may dismiss the deputy from the public service altogether. Deputies themselves sometimes know that a new government harbours questions about their political perspectives and their perceived loyalty, or they question the policy wisdom of a new government, and in such cases are likely to offer their resignations to the incoming prime minister.
But in most transitions the vast majority of deputies remain in their department positions. There have been no real bloodbaths among deputies in Canadian federal politics. On the contrary, most newly elected governments recognize that they need the professional experience of most of the existing deputies and can benefit greatly from their advice. In 1984, the newly elected Mulroney government maintained most of the deputies it inherited from the Trudeau government, just as the newly elected Chrétien government retained the majority of deputies it inherited from the Mulroney government in 1993. In turn, when Paul Martin succeeded Jean Chrétien as prime minister in December 2003, he maintained the deputy ministers of his predecessor, many of whom he had worked with while serving as finance minister under Chrétien. This tendency is also common within most provincial governments (Dyck 2008, 567; Inwood 2012, 143–44). This stability throughout government transitions speaks volumes about the professional integrity and loyalty exhibited by deputy ministers in the performance of their duties.
