John Baird (Foreign Affairs) and Tony Clement (Treasury Board) were the big winners today as the Prime Minister unveiled his new cabinet. There were not many significant changes, no notable demotions, some notable omissions, and Maxime Bernier was introduced in the minor role of minister for small business. Jason Kenney, Peter MacKay, James Moore, Rob Nicholson, Lisa Raitt, Diane Finley, Rona Ambrose, Jim Flaherty, Leona Aglukklaq, Bev Oda, and Peter Kent all stayed put. Personally I was disappointed that Candice Hoeppner and Shelly Glover were not included in cabinet as both have been outstanding members of Parliament. There were only 3 rookie MPs appointed, and I was disappointed not to see Kellie Leitch or Chris Alexander among them.
John Baird at Foreign Affairs will be interesting, and Treasury Board is a great assignment for Tony Clement. Libby Davies was on Power Play and when discussing the new Tory House Leader Peter Van Loan, Libby joked that she was going to end up missing John Baird. Evidently John is a friendlier person to work with than Peter. James Moore is wasted at Heritage, unless he tries to implement CBC reform; otherwise it is just a ceremonial post that allows him to attend a lot of parties, galas, and special events. It would no doubt be a fun job, but I'd rather see his talent put to better use in something like Industry.
I think a lot of great talent was left out and there are ministers who remained in cabinet that I don't think belong there. I'd be okay with people like Kellie Leitch and Chris Alexander being left out if there were probably 20 ministers but with nearly 40 they and others should have been included.
ReplyDeleteBev Oda and Lisa Raitt should have been gone I think.
Christian Paradis is underwhelming as a minister. If he wasn't from Quebec, he wouldn't be in the cabinet.
ReplyDeleteAll three rookie MPs that received Ministerial roles got them because of Geography. Labrador, City of Toronto, Peel Region. If Durham didn't already have two Ministers and Toronto and Peel hadn't delivered so many seats I would bet Chris Alexander would've jumped the line. That said, I'm sure he'll get a high profile Parliamentary Secretary gig.
ReplyDeleteJulian Fantino....are you kidding me with that? It was pointed out to me, on this blog, that during the innitial by-election that I should hold my nose. OK I did that, he got in and soon became a darling. When the pressure was off to see "Caledonia" Jully get advanced is beyond me.
ReplyDeletebverwey
I agree with all province's having some form of representation at the cabinet table but we shouldn't just have a minister because they are a woman, or they are from this region of the province, or speak this language or are of this ethnicity, they should be minister because they have the best experience in that area.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he is new Chris Alexander likely has the most experience to be Minister of Foreign Affairs.
While I agree that Peter Penashue is likely only in cabinet because he's from Newfoundland and Labrador, he does have experience in Intergovernmental Affairs which is not something a lot of MPs usually have.
Sounds like I need to do a webpoll on who should not be in cabinet. I endorsed Fantino during the by-election because it was a bellweather GTA riding and a substantially significant victory, but I never plugged him for cabinet.
ReplyDeleteIm rather pleased Mr Baird got the Foreign Affairs post.It should rather interesting for the next four years.Thank you Mr Cannon BTW.
ReplyDeleteJoshua
James Moore, go after the leftards agitprop central. Dismantle the ceeb, start by selling off the tv arm. Who needs a ministry of leftie truth when you have 200 channels and this interweb thingy?
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