There was an interesting story this week (can't find the link) about how cabinet shuffles have historically had little to no effect on a government's popularity. It's easy to understand why: most people don't follow politics closely enough to know who is minister of what, and a change of names on the roster doesn't make a wink of difference to the average citizen.
Today's cabinet shuffle will likely follow the historical trend. It is not a major shuffle, and no one can possibly find any serious fault with the new lineup. What amazed me more than anything was how secret the shuffle stayed until the swearing in ceremony. Virtually nothing leaked out. This government is really secretive -- in a good way!
Of all the changes, one disappointed me and one really pleased me. This won't be hard to guess. Particularly gratifying is the promotion of Maxime Bernier to foreign affairs. I can't say enough about this minister: he's an actual small c-conservative, is happy to make it known, is from Quebec and he dresses properly. What more could you ask for? This guy is going places.
The letdown is Josée Verner to Heritage. Verner is not going to do anything to promote conservatism in this ministry. Culture is an area where we could make a lot of headway if we had a minister with a mandate and some courage. Verner will just traipse around giddily handing out piles of cash from the panoply of slush funds at her disposal and continue to try to appease various special interests in the arts and "cultural" communities, all of whom will never ever vote Tory.
I was hoping Myron Thompson would get the call, but we'll have to wait till next time.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 11:31 PM
