Michael Sabia
Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet of CanadaWikipedia
14
MENTIONS
11
EPISODES
10
PODCASTS
Search complete. 14 mentions across 11 episodes found for "Michael Sabia".
Sep 18, 2026
Chantal HébertPANELIST
It's too easy to maneuver this into we're giving away our airports." Um, Bill Morneau appointed a committee to look at the issue, and it recommended going the route that we're going.
Chantal HébertPANELIST
And what I thought was interesting was that the pe- among the people on the committee were, uh, Michael Sabia, who is now the Clerk of the Privy Council, Mark Wiseman, who is now our ambassador to the US, appointed by, uh, Mark Carney, and, uh, Dominic Barton, who has just been appointed by Mark Carney as the head of, uh, his investment agency.
Chantal HébertPANELIST
So clearly, uh, these people are close to the prime minister.
Chantal HébertPANELIST
One assumes that Mark Carney himself was already of, uh, a mind to do this airport move.
Garry KellerGUEST
This is a government that decisions are being made largely by one man, Mark Carney, with a couple of key other players, Tim Hodgson as Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, obviously Dominic LeBlanc and his role.
Garry KellerGUEST
as the Canada-US trade lead, and Michael Sabia as clerk of the Privy Council, and perhaps also Stephen McKinnon, who's been involved in some of the heavy lifting and is a government house leader, is the guy who's responsible for getting the legislative agenda did.
Garry KellerGUEST
But outside of this world, it really has been the people that Mark Carney has appointed, your Doug Guzmans of the world, the Defense Investment Agency, or others in similar roles that actually have the decision-making power, to the point where I am told that the prime minister, where traditional decisions that have went to cabinet in the past are now being made exclusively by the prime minister by simple letter.
Garry KellerGUEST
And so that may have positive impacts for the government, and how it makes decisions and makes things decision quicker, but I'm not sure it makes decisions better for the country or for parliamentary democracy.
Brian CallahanHOST
Yeah, he was at the table with the Premier and with the former Liberal government to sign the 2024 MOU.
Brian CallahanHOST
I remember it down when he was here in town down at the JAG, I think the news conference was, with Michael Sabia when all of this was first talked about.
Brian CallahanHOST
I'm not sure.
Brian CallahanHOST
Conflict is a little bit just only a stretch, only in the sense that, yes, he's got those ties to Hydro-Quebec, but to what extent is he inserting himself? We don't know.
Sam CooperGUEST
So he's placed at the top.
Sam CooperGUEST
Who does he reach out for? But someone like Michael Sabia, we've talked about before, coming from Quebec and being within that sort of, let's call it Canada-China Business Council, pro-Beijing business lobby, technocrat sort of person that's promoting Chinese policies in Canada.
Sam CooperGUEST
Dominic Barton, same thing.
Sam CooperGUEST
So yeah, it adds up that the pieces are being put in place of the people that Certainly China wants to see there.
Sam CooperGUEST
So he's placed at the top.
Sam CooperGUEST
Who does he reach out for? But someone like Michael Sabia, we've talked about before, coming from Quebec and being within that sort of, let's call it Canada-China Business Council, pro-Beijing business lobby, technocrat sort of person that's promoting Chinese policies in Canada.
Sam CooperGUEST
Dominic Barton, same thing.
Sam CooperGUEST
So yeah, it adds up that the pieces are being put in place of the people that certainly China wants to see there.
35 MINS LATER
Jason JamesHOST
It's, it's deeper than that.
Jason JamesHOST
Right.
Jason JamesHOST
We are installing, you know, Dominic Barton, Michael Sabia, like, like, intermediaries into our government between the Liberal Party, the Liberal government and the CCP.
Jason JamesHOST
We have China's intelligence and police agencies now coordinating with Canada's federal police agency.
Brian CallahanHOST
Yes.
Brian CallahanHOST
Michael Sabia
Tom DavisGUEST
... person.
Tom DavisGUEST
So, so if Ottawa's driving the boat, who really is driving the boat?
Gary DoerGUEST
Uh, but, uh, you know, the, the, the...
Gary DoerGUEST
I thought it was really important they had, uh, Michael Sabia there with all the clerks of cabinet.
Gary DoerGUEST
So all the projects that were being proposed by premiers, uh, uh, and, and being re- forwarded to the national government, uh, had, uh, people in, in high positions that worked for premiers working with, uh, the, uh, clerk of cabinet for the prime minister, and I thought that was a smart move.
Gary DoerGUEST
I hadn't seen it before in trade negotiations.
Nik Barry-ShawGUEST
It was the same advice, you know, and many of the same players in government, too.
Nik Barry-ShawGUEST
Michael Sabia, Mark Wiseman, who is now the ambassador to... to the US for Canada.
Nik Barry-ShawGUEST
Back then he was with the Canadian pension plan.
Nik Barry-ShawGUEST
Michael Sabia, who was then with Quebec's pension fund, La Caisse.
Nik Barry-ShawGUEST
Now he's the privy council, basically the head of the civil service under Carney.
Nik Barry-ShawGUEST
And so there's just been a kind of like a shuffling of the deck, you know, but it's a lot of the same people pushing largely the same agenda.
DavidHOST
So CDPQ, the Casse de Dupont, as we see written right there, becomes the largest shareholder of Alstom at 17.5%.
DavidHOST
This is the same CDBQ that Mark Carney poached two people from, including Marc-Andre Blanchard, his chief of staff, who used to be the executive vice president and head of CDBQ Global, as well as Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, used to be the CEO of CDBQ.
DavidHOST
This is back 2009 to 2020.
DavidHOST
Now, what's more relevant here is Marc-Andre Blanchard, because he was working there up until 2025.
Tyler MeredithGUEST
I mean, I, um, y- I was also there, as you know, we ran into each other.
Tyler MeredithGUEST
But I thought, to me the, the also interesting part of that summit was that at the end of that summit, Michael Sabia, the Clerk of the Privy Council, made a huge call to action to everyone in the room being like, "The most important thing that we can all do here is to be super ambitious." And I think that, that instinct is right.
Tyler MeredithGUEST
Like, we, we need the most ambition, not only from, from government in the, in the policy, uh, that it's seeking to, to undertake, but also frankly from the business community.
Tyler MeredithGUEST
And I don't think the business community has actually kept up.
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