Prime Minister Harper’s cabinet shuffle is not just new lifeboat assignments. The changes on Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Harper are to decide who is to go first class on their voyage to defeat. And if you think there is anything significant about this new cabinet, even the Prime Minister would have to stretch the truth to tell you what.
Yes, there are more women, all twelve of them, in a cabinet with 27 men. Mind you, three are Ministers of State. These are sort of Ministers in training. They have learned to keep their mouths shut on the back benches and they can now bring that trait to cabinet.
The most trusted members of cabinet Flaherty, MacKay and Nicholson are still there. Jim Flaherty had to stay in Finance but Peter MacKay and Rob Nicholson switched jobs so that Prime Minister could point to it as a change. Maybe with the change to Justice, MacKay will stop using military equipment as his personal jitney service. Can you not just see Peter MacKay moping in his new office and saying: “There ain’t no justice!”
Of course, the Bobbsey Twins are still there. John Baird remains the faux Foreign Minister but Jason Kenney got a new title. The new job should leave Kenney more time to pursue the Prime Minister’s job. Kenney wants to be the first bachelor prime minister since Pierre Trudeau. Mind you, because he was not married, the Tories liked spreading rumours that Trudeau was gay—until he married Margaret Sinclair.
Harpers point-man on pipelines, Joe Oliver continues in Natural Resources. At 73, the Toronto MP is not what they mean when they say this cabinet is younger. The Prime Minister made the cabinet much younger just by getting rid of Vic Toews. Toews made the entire cabinet seem old.
A newcomer to cabinet is Chris Alexander, the former diplomat. Alexander shopped both the Liberals and the Conservatives before the last election. The Conservatives seem to have made the better offer. The Ajax-Pickering MP might make the Harper cabinet look better but he adds no depth.
But among their instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office to all new cabinet ministers is the admonition: No matter what you do, do not order orange juice if it costs $16 or more.
The final word on this cabinet is that the entire exercise is a waste of time. No key players are changed. It is nothing but cosmetics on the departed.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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