Brodie’s most poignant observation: time is the most precious resource in Ottawa

ST. JOHN'S, N.L.—The position of chief of staff to a prime minister or premier is among the most powerful roles in government. Chiefs of staff have a unique perch at the top of the government hierarchy. They are the main intermediary with ministers and their staff. They perform a largely clandestine role, unknown to most Canadians, even to most public servants. So when a former chief of staff has something to say we should listen. Many Hill Times readers know that from 2006 to 2008 Ian Brodie was chief of staff to prime minister Stephen Harper. Brodie is now an associate professor of political science at the University of Calgary. A decade after exiting the PMO he has published a book reflecting on the experience. At the Centre of Government: The Prime Minister and the Limits on Political Power blends academic scholarship and real-world knowledge to interpret the complex operations of democratic government in action. Readers interested in the early years of Conservative governance will gain fresh insights into the political thinking behind some of the Harper PMO’s decisions. Brodie nestles his cautious storytelling about the inner mechanisms of policymaking within academic theory about democratic government. He seeks to test conventional truths, especially the idea that everything is centred on the whims of a prime minister. Eddie Goldenberg, former principal secretary to prime minister Jean Chrétien, pictured in this file photo in Ottawa. The Hill Times file photograph Brodie explains that there are many demands on the prime minister and the executive branch in general. Some ministers are more headstrong than others. Public policy is complex, requiring layers of public service expertise, particularly in the Finance Department. International relations and intergovernmental relations constantly tug at the PM’s agenda. There are summits to attend, personality conflicts to navigate, votes to be won in Parliament, difficulties assembling and managing a cabinet, and so forth. On most days, a chief of staff is more firefighter than trailblazer. The premise of At the Centre of Government is that perceptions of prime ministerial power are overblown. Brodie explores evidence on both sides of the argument by drawing on his personal observations and on academic literature. He exhibits a particular fondness for two excellent books from the Jean Chrétien era: The Way it Works by Eddie Goldenberg, the former senior advisor and chief of staff in the Chrétien PMO, and Governing from the Centre: The Concentration of Power in Canadian Politics by Donald Savoie, the prolific public administration scholar at the Université Moncton. Brodie evokes Goldenberg’s sensibilities about the practicalities of running a government and challenges Savoie’s contention that cabinet is merely a focus group. Perhaps Brodie’s most poignant observation is that time is the most precious resource in Ottawa. In a minority government, and even in a majority setting, the opposition can frustrate the ability of the governing party to advance an agenda. The practice of time allocation, discussed on pages 91 to 95, is a tool for government to move matters forward in the House of Commons. But what really comes through in the book is how often Brodie raises time as both a practical constraint and a strategic consideration. We are told that policy consultations take a lot of time (p. 28). International summits take up about seven per cent of the PM’s calendar (p. 36). Time presents a great challenge in the management of parliamentary affairs (p. 46). Cabinet faces considerable time pressures (p.71). Time is a bargaining chip for government backbenchers and opposition MPs (p.84). Verifying facts for journalists is time-consuming (p.121). Timing factors into political decisions, such as when to introduce a bill (p. 149). “Time is the most precious commodity that Parliament has,” Brodie observes (p. 89). Most of us overlook that time holds such political currency. Although Goldenberg, Savoie, and others touch on the matter, to my knowledge nobody else has made a persuasive argument that the tools to buy time are such a significant constraint on prime ministerial power. This sort of insider observation helps us comprehend why filibusters are used by the opposition, as with the Conservatives’ recent efforts to urge the Trudeau Liberals to reveal the economic cost of a carbon price/tax, which in turn delayed the government’s plans to legalize cannabis/marijuana. The governing party may have an abundance of financial and human resources at its disposal, but it must work with the opposition to negotiate an even scarcer resource. Katie Telford, chief of staff to the prime minister, pictured on Oct. 20, 2015 at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa, with Gerald Butts, principal secretary, and Kate Purchase, director of communications. The Hill Times file photograph The best part about At the Centre of Government is its plea for greater appreciation of the vitality of Parliament. Brodie goes to some length to explain the importance of responsible government and why Parliament matters. He astutely points out that public administration scholars focus on the centralization of government by considering the tensions between the executive branch and the public service, without a corresponding analysis of the legislative branch. It is almost as though anyone who believes in the idea of Canada being run by a friendly dictator has no appreciation for the constraining nature of the legislative assembly. He challenges those who take the legislature for granted and who assume its approval can be counted on. He rightly reminds us that there is no mythical golden age of Parliament when MPs methodically scrutinized legislation and acted as unbiased representatives of constituent interests. Parliament is not “dead” (p.81); rather, in Brodie’s view, Parliament is “back” (p.107). That the final paragraph in the book calls for more study of Canadian Parliament (p.179) is welcome in a tome focused on the executive. Every book, as with every political administration, has its share of weaknesses. This one is well written and engaging, but sometimes I was distracted by tiny presentation details that were missed during copyediting. Brodie does well to draw out the thematic relevance of political events that are fading into political history. At times his recollections of events would have benefited from referencing news reports and other sources. A perpetual writing challenge for anyone paying attention to politics is to reflect on the institutional processes that led to a political decision. Brodie is smart to put stories in broader perspective. His observations about political staff in the concluding chapter are especially illuminating. On May 31, Brodie participated in a roundtable at the University of Regina with Katie Telford, the chief of staff to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Judy Samuelson, chief of staff to former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow. They opened up about life as a government’s most senior political staffer. All three exuded a keen sense of public service and agreed that time is a precious resource for the first minister. Telford should be commended for discussing the nature of the role while serving in it, something that she also did earlier that month in a Maclean’s Live conversation with Paul Wells. The rest of us will benefit if she and other senior political staff follow Brodie’s lead and write their own books. If they choose to do so, they might build on the lessons presented in At the Centre of Government, and help the rest of us understand the highest political office in the land. Alex Marland is a professor of political science at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the lead editor of Political Elites in Canada: Power and Influence in Instantaneous Times, to be published by UBC Press in September. At the Centre of Government: The Prime Minister and the Limits on Political Power, by Ian R. Brodie, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018. The Hill Times

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Brodie’s most poignant observation: time is the most precious resource in Ottawa

The position of chief of staff to a prime minister or premier is among the most powerful roles in government. So when a former chief of staff has something to say we should listen.

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