30 October 2008

Harper unveils new cabinet

The following is excerpted from the 30 October 2008 edition of “globeandmail.com”.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave big portfolios to three rookie women MPs in his new cabinet, aiming to give his government a new look when Parliament returns next month.

Leona Aglukkaq, who was a minister in Nunavut's territorial government, is Canada's new health minister. Gail Shea, a former provincial cabinet minister in Prince Edward Island is now the federal Fisheries Minister and Lisa Raitt from the southern Ontario riding of Halton takes the helm of the large Natural Resources Department.

Mr. Harper is also signalling the importance of managing the environment file in his second minority government, appointing Jim Prentice – one of his most senior and trusted ministers – as Minister of the Environment…

Not only will Mr. Prentice be required to manage the opposition and Alberta's oil patch as he moves forward, he will also be involved with expected negotiations on environmental files with the new administration in Washington.

Two veteran Conservative MPs received big promotions today, with B.C. MP James Moore jumping to the Heritage post and Jason Kenney being named as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration…

As expected, Jim Flaherty remains at finance, Lawrence Cannon moves from Transport to Foreign Affairs, John Baird moves from Environment to Transport, Chuck Strahl stays at Indian Affairs and Vic Toews continues as President of the Treasury Board.

The Prime Minister shook up his team responsible for working with other parties in the House of Commons, which is perhaps an indication the government wants to move away from the highly partisan and adversarial approach illustrated in the last Parliament by Peter Van Loan as House leader.

Mr. Van Loan's move will not be seen as a demotion however, as he now replaces Stockwell Day as minister of Public Safety. Mr. Day moves to International Trade.

Jay Hill takes over as House leader and Gordon O'Connor replaces Mr. Hill as Chief Government Whip.
On the economic file, Ontario ministers will have key decision making powers in Ottawa as the government works on Canada's approach to the economic downturn. In addition to the key posts for Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Baird, fellow Ontarian Tony Clement moves from health to industry...

Diane Finley moves to Human Resources and Skills Development, replacing the retiring Monte Solberg and Rona Ambrose moves from intergovernmental affairs to labour.

Other ministers staying in their current portfolios include:

- Rob Nicholson at Justice
- Peter MacKay at Defence
- Greg Thompson at Veterans Affairs
- Bev Oda at Canada International Development Agency
- Gerry Ritz at Agriculture

Moves that may be viewed as demotions include Gary Lunn moving from Natural Resources to the junior post of Minister of State for Sport and Josee Verner moving from Heritage to Intergovernmental Affairs.

Rounding out this morning's news, Jean-Pierre Blackburn moves from Labour to National Revenue and Senator Marjorie LeBreton remains as Government leader in the Senate.

The cabinet also includes seven Ministers of State, who are sworn to the Privy Council and are allowed to participate in some cabinet committee meetings.

That list includes Helena Guergis for Status of Women; Diane Ablonczy for Small Business and Tourism; Rob Merrifield for Transport; Lynne Yelich for Western Economic Development; Steven Fletcher for Democratic Reform; Gary Goodyear for Science and Technology; Denis Lebel for Quebec economic development; Keith Ashfield for Atlantic regional development and Peter Kent for Foreign Affairs (Americas).