Thursday, June 26, 2008

A Grain of Salt

Don't you just love cabinet shuffles? I think that they say so much about the current government. I also think that they're mostly just about playing politics.

Let's look at the current cabinet shuffle in Ottawa as an example. Fraught with political intrigue and scandal, Harper takes out some of the ministers who aren't doing a good job, or at least who the public thinks aren't doing a good job, or who the PM thinks the public thinks aren't doing a good job, and installs MP's or senators who will do a better job, or get him elected in a hard-to-get province.

The examples in the most recent Ottawa two-step sashay are Maxime Bernier being permanently replaced by David Emerson (interesting choice there), a senator taking over Dave's old portfolio, and another random dude from the province of Quebec taking over the one that HE left. Apparently, the PM wanted Emerson for Foreign Affairs because he's from BC, and so will be a good guy to have in there leading up to the Olympics in Vancouver.

The Senator? He's from Montreal, where Harper wants votes the most. If he can capture some of those oh-so-precious Quebec seats in the next election, he may not have to worry quite so much about not being able to crack the liberal fortress that is Ontario.

The other random dude is from Quebec too, and my guess is that he won't do anything unless he's got orders in triplicate delivered from the PM in person. Harper has these guys on such a tight leash, you can't even get into the running for an MP's seat without a pre-installed, conservative approved set of puppet strings attached to your arms, legs, and mouth.

Anyways, the guys who have been doing well are sticking around. Flaherty still has the Finance portfolio, which he deftly wields like a sword against angry Liberals and Ontarians alike, and Baird still wears the spiked collar of the Minister of the Environment, needing no provocation whatsoever to attack any critic of the Conservatives confusing environmental policy.

With Dion still unwilling to call an election, even with his new Carbon tax measure (I think he's waiting for summer to be over), it looks to me like we could be indeed looking one of the longest minority governments in history. And one of the most partisan too.

And the best part is, no one really seems to care. I guess that's what this site is going to change.

We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Anyways, I hope that all wasn't too random for ya. Cheers.