Rift Grows Between PM And Mandarins

It's tempting to blame declining influence, budget cuts and low morale on changing priorities as well as on a controlling Prime Minister who admires individual bureaucrats, including Harder, but doesn't trust the bureaucracy. The reality, though, is that Harper's international perspective, iron grip and suspicious nature are among the contributing factors. Successive regimes reached the damning and not wholly unfounded conclusion that DFAIT is a talking shop best suited to hosting diplomatic parties and managing our rich offshore real estate. Its reputation hit bottom when then-prime minister Paul Martin was so disappointed with the 2005 foreign policy review that academics were hired to write new drafts. Ugly as that was, it was only a symptom of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Liberal and Conservative prime ministers contributed to the slide by using the department's remaining prestige to fix internal political problems. Martin strengthened Quebec cabinet representation by bouncing Toronto's intelligent and competent Bill Graham for Montreal's smart but dilettante Pierre Pettigrew. Harper both rewarded and isolated Peter MacKay by giving the unseasoned former Tory leader – and partner in uniting the right – a job that puts a premium on experience. No minister has made much of an international impression since Lloyd Axworthy proselytized soft power and protected the world's most vulnerable people. Even he failed to give the department a lasting purpose or bring the most sensitive international files back under its control. Those are now Canada's relationship with the U.S. and the Afghan war. While more than a passenger, DFAIT isn't driving either. As Canada's ambassador in Washington, Michael Wilson is essentially Harper's eyes, ears and mouth. Drawing power directly from the Prime Minister, the former Brian Mulroney finance minister only theoretically reports to the department and is far more influential in setting national policy than his civil service masters. Afghanistan is even farther removed from DFAIT's sphere of influence. Life-and-death decisions mostly fall to an inner circle that includes Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier and the two secretariats supporting the Prime Minister and his cabinet. Liberals used the same Washington model and there's nothing inherently wrong with it or even with how Afghanistan is being managed. Except recent results range from disappointing to dangerous. Harper has improved rapport with the U.S. but that hasn't led to favourable outcomes on the issues that matter most to Canada: trade disputes, border controls and privacy abuses personified by Maher Arar. And the Conservatives were either so determined to support the Afghan war effort, or so poorly briefed, that it muscled a mission extension through Parliament without the commitments from Pakistan and NATO that were required for success. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/176853 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on February 2, 2007]

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