PMJT: The First 100 Days

[ModlrMike]

To answer my own post, here's the list courtesy of CBC:

Justin Trudeau - Prime Minister.
Ralph Goodale - Public Safety.
Stéphane Dion - Foreign Affairs.
John McCallum - Citizenship and Immigration.
Carolyn Bennett - Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
Scott Brison - Treasury Board President.
Bill Morneau - Finance Minister.
Jody Wilson-Raybould - Justice.
Harjit Sajjan - National Defence.
Chrystia Freeland - International Trade.
Jane Philpott - Health.
Patricia Hajda - Status of Women.
Jean-Yves Duclos - Families, Children and Social Development.
Marc Garneau - Transport.
James Carr - Natural Resources.
Mélanie Jolie - Heritage.
Kent Hehr - Veterans Affairs, and Associate Minister of National Defence.
Catherine McKenna - Environment and Climate Change.
Maryam Monsef - Democratic Institutions.
Carla Qualtrough - Sport, and Persons with Disabilities.
Hunter Tootoo - Fisheries and Oceans, and Canadian Coastguard.
Kirsty Duncan - Science.
Lawrence MacAulay - Agriculture.
Navdeep Bains - Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
Judy Foote - Public Services and Procurement.
Dominic Leblanc - Government House Leader
Marie-Claude Bibeau - International Development and La francophonie.
Dianne Lebouthillier - National Revenue.
Maryam Mihychuck - Employment Workforce Development and Labour
Amarjeet Sohi - Infrastructure and Communities.
Bardish Chagger - Small Business and Tourism

 

[Edward Campbell]

So, Parliament reconvenes on Thursday, 3 Dec, to elect a Speaker and the Throne Speech is on 4 Dec.

That is commendably brisk.

 

[Edward Campbell]

In an article in the Toronto Star, Tim Harper enunciates my worry about this new cabinet:

Trudeau hands huge jobs to parliamentary rookies: Tim Harper
A mandate for change means taking a few calculated risks and Justin Trudeau did just that with his first cabinet.​

Mr Harper gives us thumbnail sketches of the five key, rookie ministers:

    "Wilson-Raybould, an aboriginal lawyer and regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations, takes over justice, a file that will include the legalization of marijuana, the government’s promised amendments to anti-terror legislation and the highly polarizing
    and emotional issue of assisted suicide. She will have to decide on court challenges ranging from the niqab at citizenship ceremonies to mandatory minimum sentencing.

    Sajjan is a man born in India with a chest full of medals for his military service for this country, including deployments to Bosnia and multiple postings to Afghanistan. He became the first Sikh to command a Canadian regiment. Now,
    as defence minister, he must be involved in the tricky timing surrounding his government’s pledge to withdraw from the skies of Iraq and Syria as part of a coalition aimed at degrading the Islamic State and he will oversee the choice of the next generation
    of combat fighters after Trudeau vowed to end Ottawa’s pursuit of the discredited F-35.

    Philpott is a renowned physician who owns a disarmingly common touch, but she now inherits a health portfolio that will include possibly bruising negotiations with the provinces on funding. Trudeau has committed to increase federal health spending for
    home care by $3 billion over four years, but he has also committed to taking a leadership role and getting the provinces together to renegotiate the Canada Health Transfer. Expectations of an improvement from the Harper funding pledge will be high.

    McKenna, the Ottawa Centre MP, gets the crucial and renamed Environment and Climate Change portfolio on the eve of a climate summit in Paris and with Trudeau telling the world this country is shucking years of inaction on climate under Harper. She will be
    scrutinized here and around the world.

    ”Canada is going to be a strong and positive actor on the world stage (on climate change),’’ Trudeau again pledged Wednesday.

    Finance is in the hands of Bay St. veteran and Toronto Centre MP Morneau, Trudeau’s economic adviser, but someone who has never served in a legislature. He will have to manage deficits, tax the wealthiest and deliver tax cuts for the middle class and get
    some infrastructure projects shovel ready. He has to act quickly, then start to craft a budget."

Edit: format

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I share some of those worries, however, I don't believe that Mr. Sajjan has anything to do with "dealing with the tricky timing of the pledge to withdraw the CF-18".

The trickiness of that issue is not the military action of stopping the flights, packing the gear and getting people back home, which is the concern of the Defence Minister but easy to do and all handled by the uniformed people as part of day to day normal matters. The trickiness comes from the timing and effect on the relationship with other coalition partners (the US in particular) and that is a Foreign Affairs issue, so in the purview of Minister Dion.

 

[dapaterson]

I look forward to DND and VAC discovering just how wheelchair accessible their facilities really are, with the new Associate MND being in a wheelchair.  I suspect a lot of eyes are about to be opened.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I look forward to DND and VAC discovering just how wheelchair accessible their facilities really are, with the new Associate MND being in a wheelchair.  I suspect a lot of eyes are about to be opened.

I wouldn't worry. In my daily travels, I see very few DND buildings that do not have wheelchair ramps and lifts (admittedly some very old facilities or those slated for demolition do not). In some of those buildings, the lifts have never been used.

Perhaps the reality in Ottawa is different?

 

[Edward Campbell]

I share some of those worries, however, I don't believe that Mr. Sajjan has anything to do with "dealing with the tricky timing of the pledge to withdraw the CF-18".

The trickiness of that issue is not the military action of stopping the flights, packing the gear and getting people back home, which is the concern of the Defence Minister but easy to do and all handled by the uniformed people as part of day to day normal matters. The trickiness comes from the timing and effect on the relationship with other coalition partners (the US in particular) and that is a Foreign Affairs issue, so in the purview of Minister Dion.

I agree fully. Relations between President Obama's White House and Prime Minister Harper's government were, I think, good to even very good at the official level but weak at the executive level ... but that's nothing new: Bennet and Wilson were not on good terms, ditto Pearson and Johnson, Trudeau and Nixon, Chrétien and Bush (43) or Harper and Obama.

I'm not sure M Dion is going to be a strong minister vis-à-vis the USA or China, but I think he will be friendly with the Europeans, especially. Many Americans outside of the circles of power will like, even love Prime Minister Trudeau, M Dion and Ms McKenna, but I'm less certain about how well they will get along in the White House, at Foggy Bottom or in the Zhongnanhai.

 

[dapaterson]

I wouldn't worry. In my daily travels, I see very few DND buildings that do not have wheelchair ramps and lifts (admittedly some very old facilities or those slated for demolition do not). In some of those buildings, the lifts have never been used.

Perhaps the reality in Ottawa is different?

About 20 years ago I attended a lecture by Lew MacKenzie, who explained that there's an unreality bubble that surrounds Ottawa.  I've seen nothing to convince me that he's wrong.

 

[The Bread Guy]

<pedant alert>
Just for the record, 100 days from the swearing in is 12 Feb 2016.
</pedant alert>

 

[Cloud Cover]

the Trudeau team is going to erase just about as much of the Harper legacy as they can before Parliament re-convenes, because they are already thinking of the next election. Anything that can be done without resorting to bills, motions or debate in Parliament will be done very,very quickly. Following that, my guess is that in addition to all the campaign promises, at least 3 subject matters will be in the Throne speech (1) bill C-51 will be repealed and there will be no further consideration of the issue by the government; (2) "tough on crime" legislation will be amended and watered down significantly; (3) the gun registry will rise from the ashes. They will do these things (and others) in order to make the controversy a distant memory in 4 years time.       

 

[Edward Campbell]

the Trudeau team is going to erase just about as much of the Harper legacy as they can before Parliament re-convenes, because they are already thinking of the next election. Anything that can be done without resorting to bills, motions or debate in Parliament will be done very,very quickly. Following that, my guess is that in addition to all the campaign promises, at least 3 subject matters will be in the Throne speech (1) bill C-51 will be repealed and there will be no further consideration of the issue by the government; (2) "tough on crime" legislation will be amended and watered down significantly; (3) the gun registry will rise from the ashes. They will do these things (and others) in order to make the controversy a distant memory in 4 years time.     

I think ~ agreeing with some reporters and commentators ~ that changes to the Income Tax rates will be up quickly on the legislative order and I'm guessing that C-51 will be amended but not repealed, parts of it are (my opinion) good and I think thew senior security Mandarins will tell (already have told) Prime Minister Trudeau's team that.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I don't think you will ever hear the JT Liberals mention the long gun registry at all.

They did not mention it during the campaign, and basically did not campaign on it. They also remember that the government who created it, also a Liberal government, said it would cost a few millions ... and ended up costing a billion and created a huge scandal.

Now that the Harper conservatives have eliminated the registry and destroyed all the data (and, incidentally, without the world coming to an end), the last thing the JT Libs want is to resuscitate the thing and immediately have themselves linked to the past debacle of its original creation and give the opposition a wedge issue to skewer the government with.

So, I am pretty confident that we will never hear about this again (save from citizen groups that like to make noise on  this point).

 

[Edward Campbell]

At a guess, and that's all it is:

    1. Tax code changes that keep promises to the "middle class" ~ whatever the bean counters finally decide that might be, but we can be pretty sure it involves making less that $200,000/year;

    2. Amendments to C-51;

    3. Some cheap, easy regulatory changes ~ like reintroducing the long form census;

    4. Some cheap, easy procedural changes ~ like shelving the "Victims of Communism" monument in the precincts of parliament;

    5. Some cheap, easy actions ~ like establishing a commission on missing and murdered aboriginal women;

    6. Some cheap and easy foreign policy moves ~ like withdrawing from Iraq, and some not so cheap ones about climate change targets; and

    7. Lots of debates, about which we, the public, will hear nothing, about infrastructure and budgets.

My guess is that the Liberals will want to keep a pretty long, but not too expensive, series of promises, spread out over, say, the first six months, while they establish themselves as credible and "sunny." In the following 3 years we can start to count up the promises they don't keep ... until about April 2019 when there will be goodies for one and all.

 

[dapaterson]

You left out:

8.  Find a bunch of initiatives ready to execute prepared by the former governemnt, tweak lightly, and announce to great fanfare.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

Mark my words: There won't be anything easy or cheap about a commission on missing or murdered aboriginal women.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

His system doesn't let people cut and paste his cartoons, but check out Raeside's editorial cartoon of the day:

http://raesidecartoon.com

 

[The Bread Guy]

Mark my words: There won't be anything easy or cheap about a commission on missing or murdered aboriginal women.

:nod:

According to the election promises, we'll know more 1) "immediately" (according to the document), or 2) NLT 27 Jan 2016, which is 100 days after being elected according to statements made during the campaign.

 

[Kirkhill]

Mark my words: There won't be anything easy or cheap about a commission on missing or murdered aboriginal women.

What if....jus' suppose ..... the conclusion of the commission is that most of the losses occurred at native hands.  What is the prescribed course of action for the Government of Canada?  Intervene?  Not intervene?

 

[Jed]

I don't think you will ever hear the JT Liberals mention the long gun registry at all.

They did not mention it during the campaign, and basically did not campaign on it. They also remember that the government who created it, also a Liberal government, said it would cost a few millions ... and ended up costing a billion and created a huge scandal.

Now that the Harper conservatives have eliminated the registry and destroyed all the data (and, incidentally, without the world coming to an end), the last thing the JT Libs want is to resuscitate the thing and immediately have themselves linked to the past debacle of its original creation and give the opposition a wedge issue to skewer the government with.

So, I am pretty confident that we will never hear about this again (save from citizen groups that like to make noise on  this point).

I hope you are correct in this prediction. For me, and I believe for many rural voters, is the main breaking point  preventing me to vote Liberal. (followed closely by their treatment of the military and veterans) and then their natural disdain of the western middle of Canada.

 

[The Bread Guy]

The mandatory "looking forward to working with the staff" memo ....

Over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to travel across our great country, visiting communities large and small, and speaking to Canadians about their priorities and concerns. Many of those conversations were with members of Canada’s proud and dedicated public service. My team and I know that each and every time a government employee comes to work, they do so in service to Canada, with a shared mutual goal of improving our country and the lives of all Canadians.

Canadians sent a clear message in this election that it is time for real change, and we will get to work immediately to implement our plan for a strong and growing middle class. Canadians expect us to fulfill our commitments, and I am confident that with your support we will accomplish great things for all Canadians.

My ministerial colleagues and I also look forward to building a strong, respectful, and productive relationship with the Public Service of Canada so that together we can address the needs and expectations of Canadians in communities across the country.

We have every confidence that our public service, which is one of the best in the world, is up to the task.

I would like to thank all of the public servants who have helped ensure the steady functioning of government during this period of transition. A smooth transition of power is a key feature of our democracy, and I want to offer my sincere thanks to you for your extraordinary efforts during this time. 

All my life, I have been guided by the value of public service, and I believe it is time to restore trust in – and respect for – our public servants. I made a personal commitment to bring new leadership and a new tone to Ottawa, and I look forward to your support as we pursue our goals with a renewed sense of collaboration.

It is an honour to serve Canadians as their Prime Minister. Together, I am confident that we can build an even better country.

Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada