How Anita Anand became the Trudeau government’s all-round fixer
Anita Anand presents like the law professor she was for more than two decades: crisp, careful, occasionally prone to using obscure words that her staff are not above mocking. But the minister of national defence arrives at those press conferences like an ice cream truck approaching from the next block. She is usually travelling at a purposeful scurry with a clutch of young staffers in tow, and you can track how close she is by the music blasting from the phone in her hand.
Now, the world is threatened by a marauding Russian bear, in a conflict whose worst possible escalation is nuclear war. The least appalling outcome is the horror that is already known: thousands of Ukrainian civilians dead, thousands more raped or forcibly relocated, millions displaced. It’s become clear that the peaceful global balance was never as stable or certain as we blithely assumed it to be.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is nearing his 10th year as Liberal leader, and his party its seventh in power. Succession planning is inevitable, and Anand is one of the obvious possible leadership contenders. Her move to defence reads as a clear statement of trust from Trudeau that she can navigate this post under urgent circumstances as well as she did the last one. It could also end up being a poisoned chalice handed over with a smile of gratitude and apology.
Ram’s daughters did indeed strive: Gita became a labour lawyer and Sonia a vascular specialist and professor of medicine. Anita, meanwhile, completed degrees at Queen’s University and the University of Oxford before returning to the East Coast to get her Canadian law degree at Dalhousie University in 1992.
In 2006, she returned to U of T, serving as associate dean of law and later as the J.R. Kimber Chair in Investor Protection and Corporate Governance. Her fellowships, awards, cross-appointments and publications fill a 19-page CV. At this point, with Anand’s academic career in full swing, she and Knowlton settled in Oakville, where they built an archetypal upper middle-class life. Their kids took piano lessons and played hockey. Knowlton coached their teams.
Soon after the election, she was summoned to a meeting with some of the transition team advising the second-term Trudeau government. They wanted to know about any skeletons lurking in closets, so she knew they were vetting her for something. A week later, she pulled into a parking garage at Toronto Pearson International Airport in her husband’s pickup truck, a coat thrown hastily over the dishevelled clothes she’d been wearing at home when her son called to say his car battery had died.
The next phase was trying to reserve vaccines, instantly the most precious commodity on earth, for a country with no domestic vaccine manufacturing. There was no way to know which one would cross the clinical-trial finish line first and which would fail, so the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, a panel of experts advising the government, told Anand that Canada’s best plan was to hedge its bets and sign contracts with all seven of the leading candidates.
Anand has made an early impression within the military as a quick study who is willing to make difficult decisions without hesitation. of 2021, and this time around, Anand didn’t need to introduce herself when she knocked on the doors of Oakville in order to win re-election.
Andrew Leslie, a former army commander and ex-Liberal MP, sees the Trudeau government as self-absorbed and lacking any interest in defence So far, Anand has made a good impression within the CAF and among defence experts. She’s perceived as thoughtful; she takes briefs well, asks smart questions and can quickly drill down to the essence of an issue. It’s easy to sit on files at defence, because it’s a big, cumbersome machine where many of the gears can’t grind into motion until the minister gives the word. It requires a person willing to make a call rather than dithering about media coverage, polls and political calculations.
Asked how she’ll define success in this file, she says she wants to put structures in place that will outlast her and—straight from the talking-point songbook—make sure CAF members are protected and respected every day when they put on the uniform in service of this country. “In addition to that, I hope to ensure that we do reach tangible results relating to minimizing, to the extent possible, all forms of discrimination in the Canadian Armed Forces,” she says.