Page - 172 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE172 People People matter.26 The elusive characteristics of leadership are depen- dent on the right people being in the right job and performing at or beyond their capacity to lead the public in crisis.27 Strong institutions and robust decision-making processes require competent people. Competence is partly determined by a per- son’s background and training and partly by their character and judg- ment. The comments on the personalities of the Chief Medical Officers of Health above are instructive. Health Minister Patty Hajdu has performed with competence and compassion. Having worked on homelessness in a mid-sized city, she is well placed to understand their vulnerability to COVID- 19. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has used her experi- ence dealing with the Americans and Europeans on trade to develop arrangements with the U.S. regarding borders. Jean-Yves Duclos, President of the Treasury Board, a former scholar of income security, played an important role in developing income supplements. And, Procurement Minister Anita Anand, a former law professor, contrib- uted beyond her portfolio responsibilities, as did Finance Minister Bill Morneau. Internationally, Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and Angela Merkel of Germany have shown strong leadership based on science.28 The principles of competence, character, and judgment also extend to senior members of the public service. The Clerk of the Privy Council, Ian Shugart, having been Deputy Minister of Health and of ESDC as well as Director of the Medical Research Council (the pre- decessor to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research), and Graham Flack, the Deputy Minister of ESDC, having been a senior official in social policy and at Finance Canada, were well positioned to gear up quickly to face the crisis. They had also built up trust over years of working together. 26. Ian Green & André Côté, Leading  by  Example:  50  Prominent  Canadians  Talk  to  Us  about  the  Federal  Public  Service  and  Why  Leadership  Matters  (Ottawa, ON: Public Policy Forum, 2007). 27. For U.S. presidential examples, see Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership: In Turbulent Times (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018). 28. See “Coronavirus: How New Zealand Relied on Science and Empathy”, BBC (20 April 2020), online: <www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52344299>; Katrin Bennhold, “Relying on Science and Politics, Merkel Offers a Cautious Virus Re-entry Plan”, New York Times (15 April 2020), online: <www.nytimes.com/ 2020/04/15/world/europe/coronavirus-germany-merkel.html>.