'Happy coincidence' or master plan: How Carney’s team full of Quebecers wants to govern Canada
https://nationalpost.com/news/mark-carney-team-of-quebecers
The key question centres on the possible effects of this Quebec-heavy contingent in the Carney government, both in terms of policy and politics
…Today, more than 60 years after those first violin lessons, the two men are pulling on different strings as influential players in Canadian politics.
Harder, a former deputy minister, has become an influential senator on Parliament Hill, while Sabia has established himself as a well-respected top executive in both the public and private sectors. He’s made stops in corner offices at CN, Bell Canada, the Caisse de dépôt et de Placement du Québec (CDPQ) and Hydro-Québec.
On Monday, he will return to work in Ottawa to become the Clerk of the Privy Council, the country’s top civil servant and one of the many key players in the Carney government who comes from or made their name in Quebec.
While he won’t be wielding a chainsaw, like an Elon Musk-style “disruptor,” Sabia is known as an agent of change who is “risk tolerant and outcome-focused,” Harder told National Post, “rather than process-focused and mistake avoidance.”
As for the consequences of Sabia taking on the top job in the public service, Harder stops short of saying that he expects cuts to the Canadian bureaucracy. But he said he expects his old violin mate to lead a process of “delayering” the bureaucracy to help it keep up with “the pace and breadth of change that Prime Minister (Mark) Carney is intent on leading.”
In Sabia, Carney has found a seasoned executive but also an anglophone, just like him, who enjoyed tremendous success in a province known for its sensitivities: Quebec.
Since the federal election in April when his Liberals surprisingly dominated Quebec, Carney has surrounded himself with high-level politicians from Quebec such as Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly and House Leader Steven MacKinnon.
Other senior officials in the Carney government from Quebec include incoming chief of staff Marc-André Blanchard, an influential Montreal lawyer and former ambassador to the United Nations; and David Lametti, a former Montreal MP, minister of justice and law professor at McGill University whom Carney chose to be his principal secretary. 'Continue…