Cabinet government is on life support, and it needs a reboot, stat

Canada should commit to limit the size of cabinet to 20, and to bring all important government decisions before cabinet. Give more power to cabinet and stop using it as a focus group. This would also help to bring cabinet government back and reallocate some of the savings to MPs and parliamentary committees.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, pictured at a Liberal caucus meeting on the Hill on Jan. 25, 2024. Then-British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a 15-member cabinet in 1942 to deal with the war effort and to run the government. A 39-member cabinet may make for good partisan politics, but not for good government, writes Donald Savoie. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY DONALD SAVOIE

May 20, 2024

Canada’s national institutions are confronting deep-seated problems. Members of Parliament from different parties are voicing concerns, recently retired federal public servants have become increasingly critical of their old workplaces, former cabinet ministers who write me...

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