Prentice drops bombshell, quits cabinet

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This article was published 05/11/2010 (5530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Don’t think of Jim Prentice as an environment minister lost. Consider him a federal leadership contender found.

Prentice’s surprise resignation from the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be interpreted by many as an indictment of the Conservative government’s stalled environmental policies.

But for those with an eye to Canada’s political history and an ear for inside-Ottawa scuttlebutt, Prentice’s astoundingly well-cloaked exit is a career move ripped straight from the playbook of prime ministers past — and present.

“This new opportunity will ensure that I continue to impact Canadian public policy, but in a new capacity,” Prentice, 54, declaimed of his plum new job as a CIBC vice-chairman.

“My decision,” he told a rapt House of Commons late Thursday afternoon, “is based on this unique opportunity which I am eager to pursue.”

After pledging ongoing allegiance to the prime minister and the government, Prentice added that his “lifelong support of the Conservative Party of Canada, like my commitment to our country, is unwavering.”

As a leadership campaign slogan, it’s a start.

And make no mistake, in Ottawa’s barely subterranean world of federal leadership shadow-boxing, Prentice has been quietly assembling a roster of supporters that could be turned into a campaign team.

The transcript of his resignation statement went out to the media Thursday from Spotlight Strategies, with the contact name of Jason Hatcher — the fellow who ran communications for Prentice when he campaigned for the Progressive Conservative party leadership in 2003. The p.r. firm is headed by longtime conservative backroomer Susan Elliott.

Prentice went to extraordinary lengths to keep his move under wraps.

He chaired the cabinet operations committee this past Monday evening and said nothing of his plans to his colleagues.

Prentice told CBC, which originally broke the news of his resignation, that he quietly negotiated terms for his new banking job on Wednesday night.

Industry Minister Tony Clement later told reporters he learned of Prentice’s pending resignation on Twitter five minutes before his colleague rose to speak.

Why Prentice is leaving now doesn’t seem such a mystery.

The environmental portfolio, given political developments in the States and the Harper government’s avowal to match U.S. policy, is flat-lining.

Leaving a top caucus position to pave the way for a future leadership bid is a tried and true game plan.

John Turner did it, quitting as Pierre Trudeau’s finance minister during a global recession only to return to lead the Liberal party and serve a brief summer at 24 Sussex Drive.

Jean Chrétien did it too, quitting Turner’s shadow cabinet in Opposition before returning to lead the party — and eventually attain power.

Paul Martin tried, but was fired before he could quit Chrétien’s cabinet as finance minister. Didn’t matter. He too ended up leading party and country.

— The Canadian Press