Don Martin: Mr. Dithers is back as government slows to a crawl on Justin Time
You can set your watch by Justin Trudeau. Just take the announced time of a prime ministerial event, media availability or photo-op and add at least 45 minutes.
Insiders shrug and call it Justin Time. After all, cramming Trudeau’s brain with all those media lines, scripted quips and perfected non-answers usually runs into overtime.
But tardiness in action, or inaction, has achieved an Omicron-level contagion inside this government, which framed the fall election as a cry for action only to hit the ground running at a sloth-in-slow-motion speed.
Be it the calling together his new caucus, appointing a cabinet, setting up cabinet committees to vet legislation and parliamentary committees to examine the proposed bill or waiting until the final week of the fall Commons sitting to reveal the state of government finances, Trudeau has elevated foot-dragging to a dark political art.
And get this: He still hasn’t given his slowly-appointed cabinet ministers their marching orders, or mandate letters, which tell them which priorities are theirs to tackle.
Politico Canada is so severely vexed by this glaring oversight that its widely-read newsletter is devoting a daily feature to the number of days ministers have been denied their job descriptions. It’s now been 44 days since cabinet boxes were filled with warm lapdog bodies waiting to be told what to do.
Now, to be fair, the public release of these mandate letters was started by the Trudeau government. Until then it was an oh-so secret document, so give credit where it’s due.
But there’s a weird juxtaposition to having the finance minister about to unveil her fiscal update with a roadmap for spending to come, which requires cabinet ministers to submit funding requests in advance, when the ministers don’t know the details of their yet-to-be-funded assignments.
I quibble perhaps, because all this is all so much inside baseball. But there’s mounting evidence that when it comes to serious action on major files this prime minister has become another Mr. Dithers, the derisive label affixed to Paul Martin’s doing-everything-and-nothing government of indecision by The Economist magazine in 2005.
Take climate change. The cleanup of historic-level flooding in B.C. is just beginning and this government’s first act is to postpone the net-zero accountability deadline for a comprehensive climate change game plan by three months. How’s that for an emergency response?
Then there’s the long-overdue release of residential school documents, the non-resolution to multiple human right tribunal rulings on compensating children for underfunded social services on First Nations, a see-no-evil approach to China and attempts to sweep the Afghanistan evacuation debacle under the rug.
A frustrated Conservative leader Erin O’Toole led off question period this week huffing and puffing at the years-long delay in deciding Huawei’s fate in Canada’s 5G telecom rollout. “On the international stage, why is this prime minister always the last to show up?” Trudeau’s answer didn’t even try to reflect what was a legitimate question.
Of course, the flip side to inaction is overreaction. This government is guilty of that too, such as the instant travel ban on flights from some African countries without Omicron cases and its kneejerk testing requirement for returning travellers before airport authorities were ready to handle the task.
Either way, it’s a strange behaviour for a third-term prime minister, whose staff should’ve figured out how to fire up the engines of government and hit the accelerator by now without months of pointless pondering and delay.
It was, after all, Trudeau who framed this mandate as vital to resolving key files such as Indigenous reconciliation, climate change, pandemic readiness and restoring Canada’s place on the world stage.
But the prime minister’s excessively controlling staff, who are apparently loath to delegate action beyond their tiny circle of love, have logjammed the entire government inside a decision-making funnel, which is clearly many sizes too small.
It’s been five months since Justin Trudeau declared the fall election to be a critical referendum on new political directions for Canada at “a pivotal moment in our history.”
But since that unconvincing win, the only discernable pivot has been to dither on Justin Time.
That’s the bottom line.
IN DEPTH
Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B
In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports.
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
'Democracy requires constant vigilance' Trudeau testifies at inquiry into foreign election interference in Canada
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testified Wednesday before the national public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada's electoral processes, following a day of testimony from top cabinet ministers about allegations of meddling in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. Recap all the prime minister had to say.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
Supports for passengers, farmers, artists: 7 bills from MPs and Senators to watch in 2024
When parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks to kick off the 2024 sitting, there are a few bills from MPs and senators that will be worth keeping an eye on, from a 'gutted' proposal to offer a carbon tax break to farmers, to an initiative aimed at improving Canada's DNA data bank.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster
A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election?
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
The kids from 'Mrs. Doubtfire' are all SUPER grown up now, and we're not OK
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Two killed after collision with truck on Hwy. 417 near Limoges, Ont.
Ontario Provincial Police say two people were killed after a car and a transport truck collided in the westbound lanes of Highway 417 near Limoges, Ont. on Tuesday afternoon.
‘We made them safer and more fun’: Here’s what’s new about e-scooters
Electric scooters (e-scooters) have been gaining popularity in the capital and this season comes with some changes and updates.
Houston braces for flooding to worsen in wake of storms
High waters flooded neighborhoods around Houston on Saturday following heavy rains that have already resulted in crews rescuing hundreds of people from homes, rooftops and roads engulfed in murky water.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Canadian Auger-Aliassime reaches first Masters final in Madrid with another walkover
Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime has advanced to his first ATP Masters final, and he hasn't had to play all that much tennis to do it.
Drew Carey is never quitting 'The Price Is Right'
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Golf season a summer tourism driver in Canada
Golf is a sign of spring and summer and a major driver for seasonal tourism, experts say.
Local Spotlight
Twin Alberta Ballet dancers retire after 15 years with company
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
Here's how one of Sask.'s largest power plants was knocked out for 73 days, and what it took to fix it
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
Quebec police officer anonymously donates kidney, changes schoolteacher's life
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Canada's oldest hat store still going strong after 90 years
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Road closed in Oak Bay, B.C., so elephant seal can cross
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
B.C. breweries take home awards at World Beer Cup
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Kitchener family says their 10-year-old needs life-saving drug that cost $600,000
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.