By Staff
February 15th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency and trade war with Canada are triggering a policy shift not seen in decades – one that will spill over into the public service, which many fear isn’t equipped to handle it without major reform.
Trump’s trade shocks have dampened Quebec sovereignty, ignited a wave of national unity and now business and political leaders are racing to recalibrate Canada’s relationship with an increasingly combative and isolationist Trump administration.
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien PC OM CC KC AdE, is a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
This push for a more autonomous and resilient Canada could reshape the way government is organized and managed on a scale not seen since the Chrétien government’s 1995 Program Review, driven by a fiscal crisis so severe the Wall Street Journal called Canada the “banana republic of the north.”
The government cut more than 50,000 jobs in that overhaul. Back then, Canada was embracing free trade, globalization, and deepening U.S. ties. Now, as Trump upends that order, Canada is being forced to adapt once again.
At the same time, Trump’s ruthless reduction of the U.S. bureaucracy has Canadian public servants on edge, but experts say his scorched-earth tactics won’t play out in Canada.
“(Trump’s) going to undo a lot of things the public sector has been doing for years, and I don’t think Canada can ignore it,” says Donald Savoie, a leading public administration academic, who has long called for public-service reform. “I don’t think there’s an appetite to go as far as Trump, but we’ll have to move in that direction.”
American politics have always influenced Canada, says Alasdair Roberts, a professor at the University of the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s School of Public Policy. What Trump and Elon Musk are doing will create an “echo effect,” especially if the Conservatives take power, but with a more “modulated approach.”
More in depth detail on the federal civil service can be found at https://www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/innovation/human-resources-statistics/demographic-snapshot-federal-public-service-2018.html
The crisis has become a catalyst to tackle Canada’s productivity, infrastructure, and pipeline problems. But aside from a handful of academics, no one is asking whether the “creaky, bloated public service”— built for another era — has the capacity to handle the shift, says former clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick.
“You can’t be resilient, agile, and effective in the 2020s with a public service built for the 2000s,” says Wernick, the Jarislowsky chair of public administration at the University of Ottawa.
So far, the only focus is on cutting the size of the public service. No one is talking about reforming it.
Beware the early trophies
Wernick doesn’t expect Canada will experience “Musk mayhem” or Argentina’s President Javier Milei’s chainsaw approach to cutting red tape and bureaucracy.
But the next prime minister will “be looking for early trophies.” That will likely mean across-the-board spending cuts and attrition, two of the most common tools governments use to cut spending. It’s the “most foolish and short-sighted way,” he says.
Wernick is in the growing camp calling for a strategic review, as in 1995, so the government can take stock of what government should be doing, what actually works, and stop what doesn’t. It takes political courage to make choices, he says.
That review would help government decide whether it needs to reorganize, merge, close or create departments better suited to today’s world.
The Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) was formed in 1972. It is one of the most trusted and influential think tanks in Canada. They seek to improve public policy in Canada by generating research, providing insight and influencing debate on current and emerging policy issues facing Canadians and their governments.
First of all, I believe we don’t have any choice but to change everything, or prepare to change everything, in a strategic order, because of Trump.
I have a friend that asked ChatGPT what sociological-political archetype best describes Donald Trump taking actions since inauguration. And of that archetype, what primary behavioural characteristic would he demonstrate?
The archetype answer was “King”, and the behavioural descriptor was “Trickster”. This is what we we dealing with.
Another question asked of ChatGPT is this: Is there a sociology of normal and pathological facts in relation to the facts of the behaviour of now President Donald Trump, through the perception of the Archetype, “King”, and “Trickster” behaviour?
ChatGPT said:
Yes, a sociology of normal and pathological facts in relation to the question, would explore how society constructs, perceives, and manages observed actions, and associated behaviours of Trump, and to feedback from audiences perceiving actions observed in their minds, as normal and/or pathological.
It has been argued, that social facts are considered normal when they are widely accepted and integrated into the functioning of society. A phenomenon is pathological when it disrupts societal equilibrium.
This perspective is deeply influenced by the distinction between the “normal” and the “pathological,” as well as contemporary science and technology studies (STS) and the sociology of risk.
Applying this to President Trump, as “King”, and executive actions to date, what is considered pathological depends on his assuming, seemingly absolute power of Monarchy – the KIng rules, there is no grounding law or Constitution.
The real danger in this is the visible activities of White House officials in repetitive statements and comments or proclamations that are meant to normalize all of these actions, or proposed actions.
He can do what he wants as there is no recognition of existing practices of the Constitution, Senate, House or Judiciary, and their responsibilities and spans of power. There are no longer the checks and balances of USA Constitutional history and government practices – this is not normal, and so far has pathologized the world as it was. Now
Tariffs are coming, and this will likely not stop and will eventually demand a lot of change – business as usually is not in the plan. Negotiation is a must.
This must not be allowed to continue, or in 4 years there will not be another election.
It would be interesting to know how bloated the Federal Civil Service became when Wernick was in charge of the show.
Easy to sit on the sidelines and pontificate.