In the weeks following the Sept. 20 election, how many Liberals MPs, one wonders, took to dropping to their knees at bedtime to offer this prayer to the Almighty:
“Dear Lord, I will do anything You wish, serve in any capacity You choose, but please, I implore You, do not let him make me Minister of National Defence.”
Once a plum on the ministerial tree, ranking in prestige with finance and external (now foreign) affairs, defence has fallen on miserable times. It has become the worst job in the cabinet, its major problems outlasting every minister who has tried to resolve them. Defence is not just the booby prize when the prime minister shuffles portfolios, it is a landmine for any minister who dreams of being prime minister one day.
Last week, Justin Trudeau handed the landmine to Anita Anand, a 54-year-old corporate lawyer from Oakville, who was first elected in 2019. She had earned her “promotion” on the strength of her performance as minister of public services and procurement, in which capacity she was responsible for securing supplies of COVID-19 vaccines for Canada. She replaced Harjit Sajjan, who had become a lightning rod for the opposition and was shuffled over to international development.
Anand now faces the same smorgasbord of issues that had frustrated Sajjan. The starting point is the lack of a clear mission or purpose for the Canadian Armed Forces, a mission that the men and women of the army, navy and air force can accept and be motivated by, and that the public understands and supports.
For several decades after the Second World War, Canada was known for its international peacekeeping. Our “Blue Berets” earned distinction for their service in Cyprus, Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, East Timor and Eritrea, among other global hot spots. As the emphasis on peacekeeping operations has faded, the Canadian forces are left to wonder: Is their core purpose to participate in relief missions to countries like Haiti, to support firefighters in British Columbia, to patrol Canada’s coastlines and airlines, or to clean up disastrous messes left in long-care homes by incompetent managers and negligent provincial overseers?
Mission confusion or fragmentation is reflected in military procurement programs that are infamous for poor planning, dumb decision-making, endless delays and huge cost overruns. Why, for heaven’s sake, did the defence department buy four rusting and obsolete diesel submarines from Great Britain? Destined for the Royal Navy scrapyard, they served no useful purpose in Canada on the rare occasions when they were actually seaworthy.
The department paid $750 million for the four subs. As a British MP exclaimed at the time, “Why were the Canadians daft enough to buy them? … It’s either incompetence on behalf of the Canadians, or sheer, smooth-talking salesmen from the MOD (Ministry of Defence) here in Britain.”
Then there’s the saga of the “new” fighter aircraft. New, perhaps, in 1997, when the Chrétien Liberal government began the process to purchase F-35 Lightning II “stealth” fighters from U.S.-based Lockheed Martin. Still fairly new in 2010 when the Harper Conservative government placed an order for 65 of the controversial F-35s. Not so new in 2021 when after 24 years of review, reappraisal and reconsideration by three administrations, one cancelation and now a re-opened competition – with no final decision yet in sight.
The most immediate and urgent issue facing Anand is the one that stymied her nine immediate predecessors (all males) since 1998, when the issue first surfaced – that’s sexual misconduct, which can be found today from the bottom to the very top of the military hierarchy. At least nine top officers are currently under investigation, have retired early, or are suspended with pay due to allegations of sexual or other misconduct. Somehow, the new minister has to come to grips with the pervasive boys-will-be-boys culture of the forces, and to establish a credible and effective procedure, independent of the command structure, to investigate complaints and administer discipline.
It won’t be easy. If it were, one of her nine predecessors would have done it. Anand will find, if she hasn’t already, that there are three notable obstacles to attempts to reform the forces. One is the military’s inherent distrust of, and resistance to, such attempts that come from outside its ranks, even when they come from the minister’s office.
A second is the clout that the military brass enjoys in the capital. The forces are not like a civilian government department. Anyone who ventures on the cocktail circuit in official Ottawa will observe that senior officers are valued members of the town’s establishment. A general is as prized as a dinner guest as a cabinet minister, probably more than most ministers. The chief of the defence staff – if the smell of scandal does not hang over the person or office – will attract more deferential attention than the defence minister. Subtle though the pressure may be, ministers who are bent on instituting change know they will have to deal with a military leadership that is probably held in greater esteem than they are by the influence brokers of the capital.
The third obstacle is political support, meaning the lack of it. Over the years, politicians who have demanded reform, or an overhaul, of the military have had a way of backing off when push comes to shove. The political risk involved in making an enemy of the military establishment looms too large.
If Anita Anand is going gamble her political future on her ability to clean up the military, she is going to need the unwavering support of the entire Liberal caucus, the cabinet and the prime minister. She will need them to stand up for her whenever the Conservatives try to embarrass her and frustrate her efforts, as they did to Harjit Sajjan. Without that support, defence will remain the worst job in Ottawa.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens is an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail and Maclean’s. His new book, Flora! A Woman in a Man’s World, co-authored with the late Flora MacDonald, has just been published. His column appears Mondays. He welcomes comments at geoffstevens40@gmail.com.