New MND - Anita Anand

[daftandbarmy]

Competency and merit.. and Politicians? I think there is some kind of #DIV/0! error if you mentioned those words in the same sentence.

"We have the best government that money can buy." Mark Twain

 

[dapaterson]

Anita Anand is a lawyer, born in Nova Scotia, so she's sort of like Peter Mackay, except she got into cabinet on merit, not because of who her dad was.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Will her approach to reforming the CAF be fast, cheap, good.... you can only pick two.

I'm going with 'Fast and Cheap', with probably alot of gore and splatters and collateral damage just in time for Halloween.

Did I mention yet how glad I am that I'm retired now

With his cabinet picks, Trudeau signals he's a PM in a hurry​

New governments can offer symbolism and hope. Trudeau’s legacy needs accomplishments.​

Justin Trudeau described his new cabinet Tuesday as "a team of familiar faces and new faces that are ready to put all their strengths, all their hard work toward delivering for Canadians in the coming years."

"Delivering" may be the key word here.

According to a senior Liberal source, the speed and urgency with which the government was able to operate while responding to the pandemic crisis led the prime minister to wonder whether the government could move faster and more ambitiously to deal with challenges like climate change and the housing shortage.

Even as COVID-19 slowly recedes, there's no shortage of issues that can or should be viewed as crises — not only climate change and housing but things like reconciliation, economic growth and failures of leadership within the Canadian Forces.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-cabinet-2021-1.6226051

 

[Navy_Pete]

Coming from public works, maybe she will help get procurement on track

I don't know, her background is in corporate governance. Arguably corporate governance structures is a big issue slowing down procurements right now (see DPS). All the large procurement processes feed into the TBS magic box, which is it's own growing mandarin empire.

Unless we smash a few departments together and someone beats on FIN and some other departments to stop them from their constant guerilla attacks on large procurements and stops TBS from meddling, not really hopeful. Short of a benevolent dictator burning our existing system to the ground I don't see fundamental changes.

If she can push to sort out the loophole that lets the CDS skip out on NDA charges and implement the litany of old recommendations that would be big though, so optimistic she will generally be good.

 

[Happy Guy]

Will her approach to reforming the CAF be fast, cheap, good.... you can only pick two.

I'm going with 'Fast and Cheap', with probably alot of gore and splatters and collateral damage just in time for Halloween.

Did I mention yet how glad I am that I'm retired now

With his cabinet picks, Trudeau signals he's a PM in a hurry​

New governments can offer symbolism and hope. Trudeau’s legacy needs accomplishments.​

Justin Trudeau described his new cabinet Tuesday as "a team of familiar faces and new faces that are ready to put all their strengths, all their hard work toward delivering for Canadians in the coming years."

"Delivering" may be the key word here.

According to a senior Liberal source, the speed and urgency with which the government was able to operate while responding to the pandemic crisis led the prime minister to wonder whether the government could move faster and more ambitiously to deal with challenges like climate change and the housing shortage.

Even as COVID-19 slowly recedes, there's no shortage of issues that can or should be viewed as crises — not only climate change and housing but things like reconciliation, economic growth and failures of leadership within the Canadian Forces.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-cabinet-2021-1.6226051

Why am I filled with dread? It is not because of the new MND but because of the potentially unrealistic marching orders The Prime Minister will give to her. I sincerely hope that she'd take the necessary time to analyze the problem (hopefully the she and her staff identifies the root problem correctly), and then act decisively. The problem is that if she is highly intelligent, competent and is able to act in a rational manner she will be a target for firing by the Prime Minister.

 

[Good2Golf]

I don't know, her background is in corporate governance. Arguably corporate governance structures is a big issue slowing down procurements right now (see DPS). All the large procurement processes feed into the TBS magic box, which is it's own growing mandarin empire.

1. TBS is simply the PM/PMO’s unspoken triad of accelerator, brake pedal and steering wheel. PM/PMO is sitting in the driver’s seat, have no doubt.

Unless we smash a few departments together and someone beats on FIN and some other departments to stop them from their constant guerilla attacks on large procurements and stops TBS from meddling, not really hopeful. Short of a benevolent dictator burning our existing system to the ground I don't see fundamental changes.

2. You assume the system isn’t operating the way the PM (any PM arguably) wants it to operate. See 1.

If she can push to sort out the loophole that lets the CDS skip out on NDA charges and implement the litany of old recommendations that would be big though, so optimistic she will generally be good.

3. Agree fully…AND clear up the statutory/operational confusion/cross-over that has evolved/degenerated between DND and CAF for the last several years.

On verra…

 

[MilEME09]

New Defence Minister Anita Anand will quickly need to name top soldier to deal with sexual misconduct crisis: experts

Anand is only the second woman in Canadian history to hold the position of Defence Minister

nationalpost.com

National post holding nothing back

 

[dapaterson]

The CAF's revolving door of PMs/PDs on projects, in a job long enough "to get experience" but not enough to see things through to completion, also contributes to the problems of the capital program.

Couple that with the tired old phrase "an aggressive schedule" which inevitably slips, requiring PMPRs be retained even longer, meaning they are not available for further work, which was costed at a certain point in time and then slips, getting hit hard by inflation, and voila.

 

[MilEME09]

The CAF's revolving door of PMs/PDs on projects, in a job long enough "to get experience" but not enough to see things through to completion, also contributes to the problems of the capital program.

Couple that with the tired old phrase "an aggressive schedule" which inevitably slips, requiring PMPRs be retained even longer, meaning they are not available for further work, which was costed at a certain point in time and then slips, getting hit hard by inflation, and voila.

If I was PM I'd tap someone on the Senate defense committee for MND, cause they know they issues very deeply

 

[Altair]

Just watching Power Play, and Chrystia Freeland pretty much admitted (in so many weasel words about balancing the cabinet for gender and diversity) that Marc Garneau lost his job as Foreign Affairs Minister because he was a white male. So this is what it has come down to now. Competency and merit are now officially dead.

Lol...

I wonder if Canadians are aware that cabinet ministers don't even need to be MPs or senators.

If competency or merit actually mattered for anything Canadian PMs would have been choosing from the 30 million adult Canadians to fill cabinet, not the 100-200 members of parliament of the winning party.

 

[Jarnhamar]

but because of the potentially unrealistic marching orders The Prime Minister will give to her.

If she fails do you think Trudeau will blame her?

Or blame the Conservative-heavy, struggling to be diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military who has refused to increase the 15% female membership despite being ordered to do so, and a history of misconduct towards women from privates to the CDS.

She is in a pretty comfortable position.

 

[OldSolduer]

If she fails do you think Trudeau will blame her?

Or blame the Conservative-heavy, struggling to be diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military who has refused to increase the 15% female membership despite being ordered to do so, and a history of misconduct towards women from privates to the CDS.

She is in a pretty comfortable position.

Harper Harper Harper

 

[Kilted]

If she fails do you think Trudeau will blame her?

Or blame the Conservative-heavy, struggling to be diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military who has refused to increase the 15% female membership despite being ordered to do so, and a history of misconduct towards women from privates to the CDS.

It's not an issue about refusing to recruit females, its the issue of not enough females who actually want to serve in the military. Last time I check we were hurting for people and basically taking everyone with a heartbeat. The only way to truly increase the female percentage of the forces would be to stop recruiting males and let attrition take its toll until you get the percentage that you are looking for.

With all of the historic (and some current) complaints coming to light, it will be some time before larger numbers of women will want to join, and if we ever have that witchhunt that some people have been talking about, it will take even longer.

NDA limitations aside, you can't blame the Op Honour issues on either side of the political spectrum, they are part of the larger Canadian society. And if you ever listen to the average Canadian teenager talk for any period of time, it's pretty obvious that society isn't going to change anytime soon, especially since the school boards basically let the kids do whatever they want, almost without concequeshes (at least in Ontario).

 

[AirDet]

Coming from public works, maybe she will help get procurement on track

We can only pray. The only thing is her focus right now is to fix the mess Vance and the others made. Hopefully she'll have enough time left in the minority gov't to fix procurement.

 

[Happy Guy]

If she fails do you think Trudeau will blame her?

Or blame the Conservative-heavy, struggling to be diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military who has refused to increase the 15% female membership despite being ordered to do so, and a history of misconduct towards women from privates to the CDS.

She is in a pretty comfortable position.

Not sure if you're trying to bait me with the second paragraph - diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military.

Concur that it appears that many of the senior Leadership positions are conservative thinking.
Diversity has been an issue for over 15 years and despite efforts (study groups, community out reach and so forth) the CAF is still relatively not as diverse as Cdn society, but I believe that you know the reasons for that as well as I do.
Not sure how much the right-wing has infiltrated the military.
Inability to increase to at least 15% female will need to be addressed if the CAF is to survive in the future.
History of misconduct - Concur.

From the little that I know of the new MND, she appears to have a good head on her shoulders. She will need to surround herself with knowledgeable and competent staff who can provide unbiased advice to her. She will need to be open minded and learn about the DND/CAF. In fact she probably has had a good working relationship with MGen Fortin (sexual misconduct/harassment allegations notwithstanding) and BGen Brodie so she knows what the military can do. She has already made some remarks in that she understands that reforming CAF will take time and it will not be easy.

A minority government might last two years and hopefully before the gov't falls she will be able to set in place some lasting reforms. My problem is whatever the Prime Minister truly understands that culture change takes a committed and sustained effort over time - years not months.

The good thing is that she is a Lawyer and she understands the necessary steps to change the NDA so the CDS can be charged. Given that all political parties agree that sexual misconduct and sexual harassment is a serious problem I am hopefully that the NDA can be amended with their cooperation.

Cheers

 

[dapaterson]

It's not an issue about refusing to recruit females, its the issue of not enough females who actually want to serve in the military. Last time I check we were hurting for people and basically taking everyone with a heartbeat. The only way to truly increase the female percentage of the forces would be to stop recruiting males and let attrition take its toll until you get the percentage that you are looking for.

Don't let facts (ie the labour market availability studies that arrived at that 25%) insert itself into your defensiveness.

 

[Jarnhamar]

It's not an issue about refusing to recruit females, its the issue of not enough females who actually want to serve in the military.

What ever the true reason is I don't think many people will see very far past a headline talking about how we failed to raise our number above 15% for 10 years or 20 years.

Not sure if you're trying to bait me with the second paragraph - diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military.

No sir. That was just me guessing at accusations I can see easily leveled at us (CAF) if someone needs to be blamed. I just didn't articulate it very clearly.



Will Anita Anand be a good MND? I think what constitutes as a good MND varies depending on who's asking. Probably a big difference between what the LPC (PMO?) thinks is good and what us CAF members think qualifies as good. The last MND was a mouse and just did what he was told, I'm pretty sure Trudeau loves that type of obedience and probably thinks he did great.

I'm not sure why some CAF members still seem to think the MND is somehow our champion or on our side.

 

[Dale Denton]

Not sure if you're trying to bait me with the second paragraph - diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military.

I understood it as the everyday citizens' understanding of the military. They only know what they see in the news, and that's probably what would come to mind if a family member wanted to join. Everyday people often don't see the minutiae, facts, science, context, etc... beyond the headlines and quick news clips.

As we are at every cabinet announcement, hopeful they are ambitious enough to listen to the experts and leverage their expertise in a dept most currently known for its never-ending issues. I'm also aware of how excited people were for the last guy to really shake things up for the better since he was an insider...

 

[daftandbarmy]

Don't let facts (ie the labour market availability studies that arrived at that 25%) insert itself into your defensiveness.

And then there's the BIPOC thing.

We still look more like an episode of 'Combat' than an episode of 'Star Trek'.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Conservative-heavy, struggling to be diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, right-wing infiltrated military

In contrast to the progressive-heavy, diverse, hierarchy-obsessed, left-wing infiltrated academic institutions.

When the progressive/conservative imbalance is raised, a common (and correct) response is that people who gravitate to academic positions tend to be progressive.

So, about that military...

PS: if group "X" is over-represented somewhere, it will have to be under-represented elsewhere. Still waiting for the federal government to set caps to prevent over-representation and drive target constituencies to where they are under-represented. Assign everyone to their silos (eg. "white cisheterosexual traditional male") and tell them which occupations/professions are "open" to people in their silo.

PPS: if a target of X% representation of group "A" is set for the CAF, how is the number "X" derived? Surely no-one would pull such a number out of his ass.