Appointing their cabinet ranks among any Canadian prime minister’s most consequential responsibilities. According to Azzi and Dutil, the editors of this impressively detailed and persuasively argued book, the “elusive skill” (446) of structuring and managing federal cabinets is the essence of prime ministerial statecraft. The results are measured by “three difficult tests: political management, collegial management, and state management” (4), with political success being “the ultimate test of statecraft in a democracy” (444). It has long been recognized that cabinetmaking at the federal level in Canada requires a deft hand to accommodate a complex mixture of regional, ethnic, gender, economic, language, religious, and patronage interests. But there can be other considerations as well. Eddie Goldenberg, a trusted political advisor of prime minister Jean Chrétien, highlighted “ensuring party solidarity [and] positioning ‘roman guards’ who would support the prime minister in all circumstances” as “guiding principles” (359) of cabinet formation.
Azzi and Dutil introduce the volume with an insightful chapter contextualizing how cabinetmaking in Canada not only fits within the Westminster parliamentary system but also contributes to perceptions of an increasingly presidential Prime Minister’s Office. In 19 chapters, 21 historians, political scientists, and political insiders detail meticulously how 20 prime ministers between 1867 and 2025 shaped and administered cabinets that were both “expressions of their personal styles” (6) and essential instruments of government policy making. Only the cabinets of Joe Clark, John Turner, and Kim Campbell are excluded from the analysis. Their relatively short tenures in office left them insufficient time, according to Frédéric Boily, “to leave a significant mark” (323). With the exception of those three administrations, every parliamentarian ever elevated to a cabinet post appears to have been identified in the book. It is revelatory that even as the scope and complexity of government increased dramatically over time, many of the fundamental goals and challenges of prime ministerial cabinetmaking and management that John A. Macdonald first encountered in 1867—Dutil claims it was “probably the hardest cabinet to put together and to justify in the history of the country” (22)—have remained relatively constant over the ensuring 158 years.
Some readers might deem as too narrow the editors’ decision to limit their definition of statecraft to strictly domestic assessments of cabinet management. Although Azzi and Dutil acknowledge that statecraft “also refers commonly to managing a country’s foreign relations,” (4) they maintain that a cabinet’s accountability, transparency, measurable performance, and constant “managerial and service innovation … is the pith and substance of statecraft” (448). This is a valid position, and each contributor to the volume consistently documents how prime ministers utilized their cabinets to advance many of the principal public policy initiatives of their time in office. One exception is R. Paul Wilson’s chapter on Stephen Harper, which dealt exclusively with “management methods” to the exclusion of policy.
Some of the contributors offered slightly enhanced definitions of statecraft. Ted Glenn, writing about the late nineteenth century cabinets of John Abbott, John Thompson, Mackenzie Bowell and Charles Tupper, pointed to the necessity of maintaining caucus support, keeping cabinet colleagues in line, and winning elections, but concluded “there is no single element to success” (89). Mary Janigan and Tom Kierans emphasized “statecraft involves securing the assent of the majority to govern for the common good” (144), an objective they conclude Arthur Meighen conspicuously failed to achieve. Similarly, Larry Glassford found R. B. Bennett’s statecraft woefully lacking the astuteness necessary for governing the state bureaucracy efficiently and effectively. Among P. E. Bryden’s takeaways from Lester Pearson’s statecraft was the benefit of “using quiet diplomacy over administrative management strategies” (278). Dutil and Azzi in their chapter on Paul Martin found “keeping an ear to the ground to sense the changes in the electorate’s mood” (392) mattered more to successful statecraft than bold programs and policies. Robert Bothwell, who authored one of the book’s two chapters on Mackenzie King, was suitably direct in his assessment of prime ministerial statecraft: “the art of directing and managing government … was not a science. There were no hard and fast rules” (197).
The book is noteworthy for the depth and thoroughness of its research. Only those authors tasked with assessing the statecraft of more recent prime ministers were constrained by incomplete archival records. As Raymond Blake noted, lacking access to cabinet records made his attempt at examining Brian Mulroney’s cabinet “at best, a work in progress” (338). Likewise, R. Paul Wilson in his chapter on Stephen Harper warned anyone attempting to gauge prime ministerial management practices without the benefit of a full documentary record to “hold their views loosely” (396). A dearth of available government sources is most evident in the chapter on Justin Trudeau’s cabinets, which is based largely on media reports and the personal perspectives of two of its authors—Jeni Armstrong and Dan Arnold—formerly senior political staffers in the Trudeau government.
The editors conclude the book lamenting the neglect of prime ministerial studies and “the decimation of political history in Canada” (460) since the early 1990s. Yet they have fulfilled their hope that this collection of essays will help to offset that deficit. Moreover, anyone desiring a broader understanding of prime ministerial statecraft will benefit by reading this book in conjunction with two other recent additions to the revived historical field of Canadian prime ministerial studies: Patrice Dutil, ed., Statesmen, Strategists and Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy (UBC Press, 2023), and Raymond B. Blake, Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity (UBC Press, 2024).
