Newly appointed Minister of Veterans Affairs Erin O’Toole leaves Rideau Hall after a swearing in ceremony January 5, 2015 in Ottawa.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Erin O'Toole is possessed of qualities that Julian Fantino, his demoted Veterans Affairs predecessor, might have found useful as he repeatedly butted heads with the ex-military personnel he was appointed to serve.
Unlike Mr. Fantino, whose career was spent in policing, Mr. O'Toole was a helicopter navigator in the Canadian Forces. He is the founder of an organization that supports acting members of the military, veterans and their families. He is a lawyer who understands military culture and parlance.
And he is personable – so much so that the Conservatives relied heavily upon him in the troublesome final months of Mr. Fantino's tenure as Veterans Affairs Minister. When an MP was required to appear before the television cameras to explain the minister's actions, Mr. O'Toole was often the man.
But that experience may prove to be inconsequential as he tries to mend the government's tattered relationship with Canada's veterans in the months that remain before a federal election.
"He has to change the entire way that Veterans Affairs Canada has been operated over the last year," said Michael Blais, the president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy, which works on behalf of wounded soldiers.
"And until Mr. O'Toole demonstrates a willingness to work worth us and not against us, we will see this as no more than a change of a puppet," Mr. Blais said. "Unless the message changes significantly, the messenger is irrelevant."
Not all former members of the Canadian military have had to do battle with Veterans Affairs. The majority, it must be assumed, have retired and collected what they were owed without fighting a bureaucracy that is seemingly uncaring of their service.
But Auditor-General Michael Ferguson said in November that some vets are waiting months or years to access mental-health disability benefits.
That bad news was compounded by Mr. Fantino's announcement of $200-million for veterans' mental health that his department said would be paid out over six years but will actually be spread over decades. And there are many other irritants, including the New Veterans Charter, which many new veterans say leaves them inadequately compensated.
Some of those who have complained the loudest about Mr. Fantino see Mr. O'Toole as singing from the same song sheet as the man he replaced.
Ron Clarke, a 73-year-old retired army sergeant from Nova Scotia, was among those who confronted Mr. Fantino in Ottawa a year ago over the closing of nine Veterans Affairs offices.
"I was unfortunate enough to meet Mr. O'Toole when we were there to see Mr. Fantino," said Mr. Clarke. "He was an arrogant, self-centred person. And I don't think he will make any difference because we believe [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper is running the show anyway."
But some military observers say Mr. O'Toole has the power to slough off the negatives associated with Mr. Fantino.
Scott Taylor, a former infantryman who is the editor of Esprit de Corps magazine, said he thinks veterans will cut the new minister some slack. The government has helped its cause by appointing Walter Natynczyk, the former chief of defence staff, as the deputy minister of the Veterans Affairs department, Mr. Taylor said. "I think he's got empathy and cares for the troops."
On the other hand, he said, the Veterans Affairs bureaucracy was ponderous long before the Conservatives took power in 2006. And now it is making the very difficult transition from serving elderly veterans of the Second World War and Korea to helping a smaller number of young Afghanistan veterans who are suffering from psychological illness and debilitating physical injuries.
"The issues are not things that can just go away immediately," Mr. Taylor said. It will be impossible to pacify everybody and "there is not one sweeping solution."