Cabinet committees as strategies of prime ministerial leadership in Canada, 2003–2019.

Cabinet committees are key elements in parliamentary government, yet they are understudied. This article examines recent uses of cabinet committees in Canada as strategic instruments of their chief architects: prime ministers. My assessment of cabinet committees under three prime ministers – Martin, Harper, and Trudeau, from 2003 to 2019 – finds both similarities and differences in their use as coordination and placation mechanisms. Harper created smaller and fewer policy committees with larger coordinating committees, while both Martin and Trudeau created larger policy committees with denser ministerial networks. However, distributions of ministerial influence did not vary significantly between prime ministers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]