The last Canadian prime minister to win a fourth term was Wilfrid Laurier in 1908. Justin Trudeau knows it. Even though Mr. Trudeau ended up saying on Tuesday that he wants to lead his party to the next election, it may well be that he is acting as if this term is his last.
A Council of Ministers has therefore been set up which can be described as more militant than the previous one and which will get to work quickly. The minority situation means that the more time passes, the more difficult it will be to make significant reforms.
In the five major projects he has targeted, Mr. Trudeau has placed people he trusts and who will likely be closer to his own progressive leanings.
1) The exit from the pandemic crisis remains, of course, the priority of the government. The crisis has shown that the government may not be such a heavy machine and that it can turn around quickly.
It is this agility that Chrystia Freeland, who is arguably the most powerful finance minister we have seen in a long time, will want to maintain and use. Mme Above all, Freeland has shown that she can deliver the income support programs Mr. Trudeau wanted during the pandemic.
It will also be there for the government’s other priorities, since everything ultimately passes through the Department of Finance. Mr. Trudeau has there an unwavering ally and who can also, when the time comes, claim his succession.
2) The issue of climate change, especially with the Glasgow conference which opens this weekend, will be a real priority. And the appointment of Steven Guilbeault as current Minister of the Environment is very clearly a sign that the Trudeau government wants to stop making only good speeches and start showing concrete results.
For this, the appointment of an early activist on the fight against climate change means that the Trudeau government intends to move faster and have more ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.
But if Mr. Guilbeault is very well known in Quebec, he is much less so in the rest of the country, where there is a risk of seeing his past as an activist in a much less favorable way. It will be particularly difficult when the time comes to talk to the oil-producing provinces.
3) Reconciliation with Aboriginals is another of the Trudeau government’s priorities, even though the Prime Minister has shown until recently that he happens to be the one who sends the wrong messages. The appointment of Marc Miller to the Crown-Indigenous Relations portfolio means the acceleration of negotiations, including on territorial issues that we often tend to postpone.
But first, it will be necessary to clean up the climate within his own ministry, which is often paralyzed by internal conflicts.
4) Housing is emerging as a big issue in every major city across Canada, and the appointment of a minister with primary responsibility signals that the federal government understands it needs to act in this area – and not only within the framework of social housing programs.
5) Finally, the national $ 10 child care program is not only a commitment by the Liberal Party in the last election, but it is also an important part of the legacy that Mr. Trudeau would like to associate with his mandate as Prime Minister.
The Ministers of Families and Intergovernmental Affairs will therefore have to act quickly to reach agreements with the few provinces that have not yet done so so that more concrete announcements can be made in the next budget.
What the composition of the federal Council of Ministers also indicates is that we are ready, in Ottawa, for a real confrontation with the provinces – and Quebec in particular – on health financing.
Mr. Trudeau had every chance to reverse his position on the conditions that would be imposed on the provinces in exchange for new federal health transfers. He always refused to do so.
The appointment of Jean-Yves Duclos to the Ministry of Health places a Quebecker in a position to respond to the government of Quebec in this issue where the Legault government has no intention of giving up an inch of its jurisdiction in health. .
Mr. Duclos is a minister who has taken a liking to political debates and who will certainly be tougher than his predecessor, Patty Hajdu. But the federal government will have a hard time being credible by promising more doctors and nurses, when we know the workforce problems that affect health systems – and not only in Quebec.