By Canadian Press

Memo to Trudeau prods Liberals to look at reviving vice-regal appointments board

Jan 24, 2020 | 10:30 AM

OTTAWA — Senior officials advising Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have pressed him gently to rethink how the Liberals have been making vice-regal appointments.

Under the Conservatives, there had been an advisory committee to offer up names for the governor general and provincial lieutenant-governors.

The list wasn’t binding, but former prime minister Stephen Harper used this process to pick David Johnston to represent the Queen in 2010.

A memo provided to Trudeau shortly after the Liberals won re-election last fall notes the advisory committee hasn’t met since 2015.

The task of coming up with candidates for vice-regal appointments — including Gov. Gen. Julie Payette, who was named in 2017 — has been left with the Prime Minister’s Office and its bureaucratic arm, the Privy Council Office.

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The memo, which The Canadian Press obtained through the Access to Information Act, suggests Trudeau consider “re-engaging” the advisory committee to “give greater structure to the identification of potential candidates.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2020.

The Canadian Press