Latest news with #IanBrodie
National Post
14-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Ivison: Carney's cabinet has too many 'downtown Toronto, urban progressives'
Article content In this week's show, John Ivison is joined by regular guests Eugene Lang and Ian Brodie to take a deep dive into Mark Carney's post-election cabinet shuffle. Article content Article content Brodie, a former chief of staff to prime minister Stephen Harper, said one concern he has is the predominance of 'downtown Toronto, urban progressives' in the new cabinet. 'It's an almost obsessively Toronto-focused cabinet,' he said, noting that excluding the one Liberal elected in Calgary (Corey Hogan) was a 'missed opportunity'. Article content Brodie said that new natural resources minister Tim Hodgson is an improvement on his predecessor (Jonathan Wilkinson). Article content 'But the problem is not that the Natural Resources department has been standing in the way of natural resource development in this country; the problem has been the environmental regulations that come out of the Environment Ministry. The Environment Ministry is huge now and much larger than it was 10 years ago. It has many more levers over the Canadian economy and the people in the Environment Department seem to be quite prepared to use all of them. The fact is that we have basically, to be blunt, the kind of a standard issue, downtown Toronto, social justice activist, kind of do-gooder, NGO type person as minister (Julie Dabrusin). Article content 'There is a long history of 'we have to keep oil and gas in the ground and keep Alberta and Saskatchewan from growing if we're going to save the planet'. If that's the approach of the government, then we're in for a very difficult couple of years.' Article content Lang, a former chief of staff to two Liberal defence ministers, said his first impression is that there are far too many Trudeau-era ministers in this cabinet. Article content 'I count 11 out of 28 – about 40 per cent of this cabinet are former Trudeau-era ministers. There is no reason for that. Mr. Carney owes none of these people anything. And he had an opportunity here to really show change in this cabinet, and he chose not to,' he said. 'It's more than about optics. It's about competence. The last Trudeau government's great failing was its relative lack of competence in governing. I don't know how you improve the competence in your governing when 40 per cent of your ministers are from a government that was less than competent.' Article content Brodie said that, while the cabinet does look like a rearrangement of the chairs of people Carney inherited, there is 'deep experience' on the front bench with ministers like Dominic LeBlanc on the Canada-U.S. trade and security file. Article content Lang took aim at the appointment of 10 secretaries of state, who will report to ministers on specific files (for example, Ruby Sahota has the responsibility to combat crime, reporting to justice minister, Sean Fraser). Article content 'There seems to be this sort of narrative going around that secretaries of state are people that you can get focused on a specific issue within a portfolio and deliver results. That's nonsense in my experience. I once worked for a secretary of state a long time ago. One of the biggest challenges a secretary of state has in the Canadian government is getting senior officials in their department to return their calls. There is a real competition here that goes on between secretaries of state and ministers and their offices. Secretaries of state have no legal authorities. They usually have no program authorities. I can't think of a secretary of state in the long history of our secretaries of state that has meaningfully advanced an important file in government. I've never seen it,' he said. Article content Carney has said he is bringing back a more traditional cabinet-style government. Article content Lang said that every prime minister in recent history has said this – and none have. Article content 'I think the last time we had a functioning cabinet government in the old sense was probably under (Jean) Chrétien 30 years ago. (Carney) says he wants to run a team. He says he's going to empower ministers. Well, we'll see,' he said. Article content Lang said that reorganizing ministries and creating new agencies is going to require 'a lot of legislative bandwidth.' Article content '(The Liberals) made an election platform commitment to create a new organization called the Defence Procurement Agency. That sounds innocuous. It's not. That's a massive, complex machinery of government change, involving three or four departments. And it'll be interesting to see if they even have the stomach to try and carry that out in a minority government context. Machinery of government changes, in my view, rarely yield the claimed benefits. They tend to be very painful things to execute. They tend to take years, if not decades. So, one wonders whether we're stuck with the basic structure we have, whether we like it or not, because of the pain and the effort that's needed to make major changes,' he said. Article content Brodie talked about the need to reform the bureaucratic side of government Article content 'The next step ordinarily would be a reorganization in the Privy Council Office, the central agency closest to the prime minister that sends out the instructions to the rest of government and checks to make sure whether anybody's paying attention to those instructions, he said, noting that reform would include the deputy minister cohort. Article content 'In my view, it's not so much that the deputy minister group is weak. I know there are some very good people there. (But) it's just way too big. There are a bunch of fake deputy ministers floating around – people with high falutin titles and pay scales, all the accoutrements of the deputy minister group, all the status in Ottawa that comes with the title 'deputy minister', like being the viceroy of some central Europeans satrapy during the Holy Roman Empire. Article content 'It's a big deal when you go to the Rideau Club as a deputy minister, unless you're the deputy minister of something that doesn't really exist and your staff is four or five people stuck away in some obscure office building. And Ottawa is full of them. Frankly, the Privy Council Office itself is full of them. If I were advising on transition or on the machine of government, I would say the next step is to just get rid of that and streamline your senior civil service team in order to focus authority on a handful of people who can make things work for you. Article content 'Mr. Carney knows all these people. They all know him. He's as well placed as any new prime minister is to make changes in this group and I expect there'll be big changes. But if he doesn't make them between now and the end of parliament, you're wasting the summer opportunity for new deputies, new ministers, and a streamlined team to get things moving for the fall session of parliament. He cannot waste the summer with ministers not knowing exactly what they're supposed to do or with deputy ministers worried about whether they're going to be shuffled in August or September.' Article content Lang agreed, saying the same principle applies to assistant deputy ministers (the next rung down in the public service). Article content 'You could blow out 40 per cent of the assistant deputy ministers in this town and no Canadian would notice. The Privy Council Office, the prime minister's department, has 1,400 officials working in it. Now when Ian was in the Prime Minister's Office, there were 700 people working there. When I was in government, before that, there were 400 people working there. You could cut that organization in half tomorrow and nobody would notice,' he said. Article content
Globe and Mail
14-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
New West Public Affairs Welcomes Dr. Ian Brodie as Senior Advisor
CALGARY, Alberta, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New West Public Affairs announced today that Dr. Ian Brodie has joined the firm as a Senior Advisor, further strengthening New West as a leader in public affairs, government relations, and strategic advisory services. Brodie brings to New West a remarkable depth of experience at the highest levels of politics, academia, and public policy. A former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Brodie has advised on some of the most significant policy, political, and governance decisions of the past two decades. He also spent four years working with the InterAmerican Development Bank based in Washington, DC. His understanding of Canadian political institutions, legislative strategy, and strategic communications will be a tremendous asset to New West clients. 'Ian's strategic insight, academic pedigree, and public service experience are unique,' said Monte Solberg, CEO of New West Public Affairs. 'He combines experience as a researcher and academic expert with decades of expertise as a political adviser at the highest levels in Canada.' Currently a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, a fellow at the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, and program Director at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Brodie's work focuses on public administration, political leadership, and institutional reform. His bestselling 2019 book At the Centre of Government offers one of the most compelling insider accounts of Canadian federal politics in recent years. 'New West is a firm I've long respected and I'm excited to contribute to the team and support their clients,' said Brodie. 'At a time when Canada needs to find real pathways to nation-build, Ian brings the kind of national perspective and strategic clarity our clients need,' added Solberg. About Dr. Ian Brodie Ian Brodie is Professor in the Department of Political Science and a Fellow at the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies. He is also Program Director at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, a Fellow of the Halifax International Security Forum, and Chair of the Research Committee at the Institute for Research on Public Policy. His newsletter, The Thursday Question, is closely read by political insiders in Ottawa and he appears regularly on The CGAI Podcast Network, and "The Chiefs" through The Herle Burly Podcast. A double alumnus, Brodie finished his PhD in the Department of Political Science under the supervision of Dr. F.L. Morton. Brodie then taught for six years at the University of Western Ontario before heading to Ottawa. In 2009, Brodie was Visiting Fellow at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. About New West Public Affairs New West Public Affairs is one of Canada's leading public affairs firms with deep experience in government relations, strategic communications, and public policy. With a team of seasoned political experts across the country, New West helps clients navigate complex political environments and achieve their goals with clarity, confidence, and impact. To learn more about how New West Public Affairs is expanding its capabilities to better serve clients across Canada, visit here.
Hamilton Spectator
14-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
New West Public Affairs Welcomes Dr. Ian Brodie as Senior Advisor
CALGARY, Alberta, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — New West Public Affairs announced today that Dr. Ian Brodie has joined the firm as a Senior Advisor, further strengthening New West as a leader in public affairs, government relations, and strategic advisory services. Brodie brings to New West a remarkable depth of experience at the highest levels of politics, academia, and public policy. A former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Brodie has advised on some of the most significant policy, political, and governance decisions of the past two decades. He also spent four years working with the InterAmerican Development Bank based in Washington, DC. His understanding of Canadian political institutions, legislative strategy, and strategic communications will be a tremendous asset to New West clients. 'Ian's strategic insight, academic pedigree, and public service experience are unique,' said Monte Solberg, CEO of New West Public Affairs. 'He combines experience as a researcher and academic expert with decades of expertise as a political adviser at the highest levels in Canada.' Currently a professor of political science at the University of Calgary, a fellow at the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies, and program Director at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Brodie's work focuses on public administration, political leadership, and institutional reform. His bestselling 2019 book At the Centre of Government offers one of the most compelling insider accounts of Canadian federal politics in recent years. 'New West is a firm I've long respected and I'm excited to contribute to the team and support their clients,' said Brodie. 'At a time when Canada needs to find real pathways to nation-build, Ian brings the kind of national perspective and strategic clarity our clients need,' added Solberg. About Dr. Ian Brodie Ian Brodie is Professor in the Department of Political Science and a Fellow at the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies. He is also Program Director at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, a Fellow of the Halifax International Security Forum, and Chair of the Research Committee at the Institute for Research on Public Policy. His newsletter, The Thursday Question , is closely read by political insiders in Ottawa and he appears regularly on The CGAI Podcast Network , and 'The Chiefs' through The Herle Burly Podcast . A double alumnus, Brodie finished his PhD in the Department of Political Science under the supervision of Dr. F.L. Morton. Brodie then taught for six years at the University of Western Ontario before heading to Ottawa. In 2009, Brodie was Visiting Fellow at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada. About New West Public Affairs New West Public Affairs is one of Canada's leading public affairs firms with deep experience in government relations, strategic communications, and public policy. With a team of seasoned political experts across the country, New West helps clients navigate complex political environments and achieve their goals with clarity, confidence, and impact. To learn more about how New West Public Affairs is expanding its capabilities to better serve clients across Canada, visit here . A photo accompanying this announcement is available at
