Stephen Harper begins his rule with an exceptionally high score from the business panel for cabinet formation as a whole, 74%. Most of Harper’s scores for the appointment of individuals to business-related portfolios are even higher, led by Peter MacKay in Foreign Affairs and Jim Flaherty in Finance.

Among all the performance scores of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin among business leaders in the COMPAS database, almost all were lower or much lower than Harper’s overall score. Only one, Martin’s for rushing aid to New Orleans after Katrina, was nominally higher, 75%. Chretien’s highest score, 57%, was for a retrospective evaluation of his contribution to national unity in November, 2005.

The new Prime Minister earns strong plaudits for including Jim Flaherty and other experienced members, assuring regional representativeness, and having a small cabinet. Harper elicits his lowest score for the Liberal cross-over, David Emerson. But even this score, 62%, is higher than any of Chretien’s scores and most of Martin’s.

A number of respondents volunteer intense criticism of the Emerson appointment. This appointment nonetheless earns a score that would have been considered high in the Chretien-Martin period. This is perhaps unsurprising because Emerson as a Liberal cabinet minister earned one of the highest Liberal performance scores—63% for the way he was approaching Canada-U.S. trade conflict in August 2005.

These are the main findings from this week’s survey of the COMPAS panel of business leaders and CEOs on behalf of the National Post under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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