For the first time in a quarter of a century, a Quebecer will have the Prime Minister’s ear as a right -hand man and chief of staff. Marc-André Blanchard is a political animal of the shadow whose strong personality is perfect for employment, according to several liberals.
“He’s someone who puts people at ease. There he will manage all the ego of the hill [du Parlement]and it takes on personality to do that. Name a nerdit does not work in this position, “says a source who attended meetings between the former finance minister Chrystia Freeland and Mr. Blanchard at the time when he was at the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement (CDPQ).
A first since Christian
From July, this experience manager will become a chief of staff for Mark Carney, that making him the first Quebecer in this highly influential position since the time of Jean Chrétien.
After a career in the highest spheres of the private and the public, the choice made by Mark Carney is unanimous with several liberals contacted by The newspaper.
As a former director of communications for Justin Trudeau, Cameron Ahmad knew Mr. Blanchard well when he represented Canada at the United Nations, from 2016 to 2020.
“To be a good chief of staff, it takes a good temperament, contacts, leadership, a capacity to be decisive, but also of the compassion and an understanding of different issues and personalities. For all these reasons, I was very happy when he was appointed, “said Ahmad on the phone.
On the right, Marc-André Blanchard, president of McCarthy Tétrault, during the hiring of Jean Charest in the law firm after his 2012 electoral defeat.
Courtesy photo
Mr. Blanchard, who is now close to the sixties, directed the McCarthy Tétrault cabinet before going to the UN. From 2020 to June, he worked as number 2 of the CDPQ as director of the international.
By announcing this appointment in early June, Mark Carney praised a man who “is one of the most accomplished Canada’s most accomplished lawyers, senior officials, senior officials and diplomats”.
No left or right
The similarities between the two men are multiple and include an experience in the public and the private, lists of prestigious contacts and an unconditional attachment both to institutions and to the order established in the face of the rise of “populism”.
In a speech to the public Policy Forum in Toronto in April, Mr. Blanchard explained this rise by “the inability of our institutions to keep the promises made to citizens” and stressed that change would come “when the two sectors, public and private, will begin to really collaborate”.
During a panel at the University of Montreal in 2021, Mr. Blanchard defined himself as a “pragmatic”, just like Mr. Carney who, at the start of this mandate, did not hesitate to marry conservative policies, in particular with regard to the development of resources.
“I am not on the left, I am not on the right, really,” said Mr. Blanchard at the time.
But unlike Mark Carney, Marc-André Blanchard has long been soaking in partisan politics.
A string shooter
Gendre by Claude Ryan, former leader of the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) and gray eminence of federalism at the time of René Lévesque, Mr. Blanchard was very early on at the PLQ, of which he became the president from 2000 to 2008, at the time of Jean Charest.
“He knows how a party works. And at the same time, as an ambassador to the UN, he was really close to power. He knows what is the job“Said a liberal source to us. “He knows a lot of people.”
With Michael Sabia as a clerk of the Private Council and former Minister David Lametti as principal secretary, Mark Carney “demonstrates that he understands the importance of the distinct nature of Quebec and that he will govern according to that”, according to Cameron Ahmad.
