The Prime Minister announced today his cabinet, and for the most part, I think that it's pretty good. He's got a strong team in Baird at Foreign Affairs, Clement to Treasury, and Flaherty remains at Finance. In many regards, it's a steady as she goes approach.
I was pleased to see Joe Oliver get the Natural Resources ministry - as a former head of one of Canada's capital markets organizations, he will be able to strengthen Canada's marketability as a commodity superpower. I'm not sure what to make of Julian Fantino's appointment to Associate Minister of Defence (procurement) - I guess the F35 procurement file drops on his desk.
I have to say that I was disappointed in seeing Bev Oda remain at International Co-Operation. She might be compotent as a Minister, but her political smarts is severly lacking. I think she will be pretty non-existent. I also wish that Chris Alexander would have gotten a Minister of State, but perhaps a Parliamentary Secretary position is in the works. My feeling is that he would be a world class Foriegn Minister with a bit of time and experience in Parliament..
Indian and Northern Affairs is now been changed to Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. As a non-aboriginal person, I think this is a good idea, although there are some that are not in favour of this.
Finally, there is the appointment of three defeated candidates to the Senate. Personally, I am of mixed feelings about this - on one hand, with a clear majority in the Senate, the Prime Minister can pretty much run his legislative agenda, including Senate reform. On the other hand, it does have the optics of patronage. Hopefully, the Prime Minister will be able to introduce the Senate term limits legislation in the fall, and this will all be moot.
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