A certain Cabinet Secretary once remarked that cabinet ministers must possess a unique talent: propensity for constant activity with no actual achievement. Well, Stephen Harper has exceeded this standard with his new ministerial rollout. By expanding his crew to 38 (up from 34), the Prime Minister has confounded critics yet again, charmed supporters old and new, and laid the foundations for the next step in his master plan.
Anyone who knows anything about Harper’s style will not be surprised to learn that the various appointments, demotions, and lateral movements involved a great deal of calculation, yet these moves raise more questions than they answer. Consider the increased number of female MPs now holding portfolios. After the 2006 election, Harper took heat when he appointed fewer women to cabinet than the Liberals did—a mistake he went out of his way not to repeat. The number of women Harper appointed this time around (11) is exactly the same as his predecessor back in 2003. Coincidence, or an attempt to match (but not exceed) the Liberal track record? One thing’s for sure—this move will definitely consolidate the slow gains made by the Conservative Party among female voters in the last election.
Some of the ministers Harper hired are political neophytes, such as Lisa Raitt, the former Toronto Port Authority boss who soundly whupped the floor-crossing MP for Halton. Garth Turner was appointed. So was Peter Kent, the famous face of Global News who erased Susan Kadis’ 10,000 vote lead from the 2006 election, and Bob Dechert, the Tory insider and Bay Street lawyer (now that’s an odd career choice for a Conservative MP, eh?) who now holds Mississauga–Erindale. What do these three have in common? They represent newly held GTA ridings and possible command centres for a storm-the-gates operation to be conducted in the 416. One wonders why Paul Calandra, who snatched Oak Ridges–Markham in a shocker, and Lois Brown, who took Belinda Stronach’s former riding of Newmarket–Aurora, were left out.
The moves Harper made with his senior ministers have brain-cramping implications, both good and bad. Promoting Quebec lieutenant and steady hand Lawrence Cannon to Foreign Affairs will bring some stability to the portfolio and cover Harper’s French flank. Moving U of T law school grad Tony Clement to the less-scrutinized Industry file cements Clement’s reputation as a jack-of-all-trades (he previously held Environment, Transport, and Health portfolios at the provincial level) and suits his quieter personality, while clearing the way for the new Nunavut MP, Leona Aglukkaq to take over the reins at Health. Keeping Jim Flaherty in Finance was the logical extension of Harper’s “stay-the-course” message on the economy, while putting former Natural Resource Minister and B.C. MP Gary Lunn in the Ministry of Sport penalty box defused the anger over Lunn’s role in the isotope crisis of last year, and ensured that the Vancouver 2010 Olympics are overseen by a West Coaster.
However, returning Gerry Ritz to Agriculture Minister despite his mishandling of the tainted meat scandal, while demoting Heritage Minister Josée Verner to Intergovernmental Affairs for failing to deal with the fallout of the Conservatives’ arts cutbacks makes little sense. The widely-respected James Moore takes over Verner’s Heritage post instead of a high-profile portfolio, despite being one of the most put-together people on Parliament Hill. Equally baffling are Parliamentary brawler John Baird’s move away from Environment to Transport and Infrastructure, while Red Tory and rumoured Harper successor Jim Prentice is appointmented as Baird’s replacement on the Climate Change file. Prentice is widely respected (even by Liberals) and enormously capable, but unless he can withstand Liberal attacks on the Harper government’s climate change record, he may be steamrolled. Baird has the opposite problem: if he goes toe-to-toe with the management of cash-strapped people-movers (such as our TTC) and resentful provincial governments over infrastructure payments, he could get himself into a fight he can’t win.
There’s no easy explanation for Harper’s cabinet choices. But one thing’s for sure: he’s got every pundit in the whole country (including yours truly) trying to find answers. If your decisions leave the entire country trying to read your mind, you couldn’t have done too badly.
Josh Lieblein is a pharmacy student who likes politics, which makes him a political scientist of a different sort. He encourages left-wing students to denounce his writing as loudly as possible, because he needs the publicity.
