Will Michael Sabia really 'kick ass' in the public service?
'No man should be viceroy of India for whom the position is an honour,' the early Victorian historian and politician Thomas Macaulay reportedly said. A rough contemporary translation might be that really big jobs require impressive CVs.
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Like the prime minister he will support, Canada's soon-to-be clerk of the Privy Council, Michael Sabia, can boast an awe-inspiring résumé of senior public and private sector jobs between which he is usually said to have moved 'seamlessly.' Common adjectives for Sabia include 'smart' and 'disruptive' (which in the private sector often means willing to cut jobs). Sabia's appointment from outside the ranks of the senior public service has been perceived as a bold (though not unprecedented) departure for a system that typically turns to the usual suspects. In the words of one supporter, the new clerk's mission in Ottawa will be to push the public service to advance Carney's priorities and 'kick its ass.'
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Not every commentator has been as gleeful. Journalist Paul Wells notably declared himself a 'rare Cassandra' on Sabia, suggesting that his big-bang beginnings have sometimes ended in a dubious fizzle. Sabia's private sector work is beyond my ken, though I will note that perhaps his most celebrated success, the turnaround of the Caisse de Depot's fortunes following the financial debacle of 2008, was arguably consistent with the broad trends of the market,though he did steer that fund towards more international investment.
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Of more immediate relevance were Sabia's recent and conspicuously brief stints as head of the Canada Infrastructure Bank (2020-2021) and as deputy minister of Finance (2021-2023) where he helped establish the Canada Growth Fund. Both the infrastructure bank and the growth fund involved leveraging private sector investment in ways Carney appears to favour, but neither has been a triumph. Sabia was reportedly frustrated at Finance, where he can hardly be blamed for the ballooning deficits of the COVID era, especially given the priorities of the then-prime minister and minister of Finance. But the experience is a reminder that no one walks on water.
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In full disclosure, Sabia was my first director at Finance Canada and one of two people who interviewed me for the job. Based on that experience (however much he may have regretted it) and personal observation, I lean heavily towards assessing him as very smart. And there can be little doubt that he is committed to helping Carney advance his priorities, including spending less on government operations. I'm also told that they are on good personal terms. But how will these two work together? Both are used to being the smartest guy in the room (or thus perceived) and neither seems prostrate with modesty or undue gentleness.
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