New faces, but stability key in Harper cabinet shuffle
New faces, but stability key in Harper cabinet shuffle
Prime Minister Stephen Harper says continuity was key as he put together his new cabinet, keeping some heavyweights in their old jobs while adding a few new faces.
Speaking after the cabinet shuffle, Harper said he had to make many changes to fill vacancies, between retirements and election losses, but added he tried to use as many people's talents as possible.
"We'll have great bench strength for the future development of our country," Harper said.
"After five years, the people of Canada know they can rely on our team."
"If some changes were necessary and desirable, the new cabinet is one that is fundamentally focused on stability and continuity," he said.
"I'm confident that the team that was just sworn in by his excellency the governor general is the right group to keep Canada on track."
New roles for some key players
John Baird, a trusted Harper lieutenant, was tapped as the new foreign affairs minister to fill the vacancy left by Lawrence Cannon, who was defeated in the May 2 election.
Baird is a trusted member of Harper's cabinet and has filled various roles within it since he was first appointed, including environment minister, transport minister, president of the treasury board, and most recently, house leader. He was not rumoured to be in the running for foreign affairs minister, so his new posting comes as a surprise.
Tony Clement is moving to Treasury Board where he'll preside over cuts to the civil service, which the government has said can be made mostly through attrition.
Peter Van Loan is reprising his old role as leader of the government in the House of Commons, taking over from Baird. And Innu leader-turned-MP Peter Penashue is becoming minister of intergovernmental affairs.
Dénis Lebel becomes transport minister and Ed Fast takes over international trade.
Other highlights:
- Peter MacKay stays as minister of defence
- Rob Nicholson remains justice minister
- Vic Toews will remain public safety minister
- Rona Ambrose stays in charge of the department of public works and government services, as well as status of women.
- Embattled minister Bev Oda stays at the Canadian International Development Agency.
- Jim Flaherty will remain finance minister, in keeping with the government's focus on stability.
- Jason Kenney will continue to lead citizenship and immigration.
- James Moore will stay at Canadian heritage.
- Leona Aglukkaq will remain minister of health.
- Peter Kent stays minister of environment.
- Lisa Raitt stays minister of labour.
- Gerry Ritz remains with the agriculture file.
- Gail Shea moves to national revenue from fisheries and oceans
- Keith Ashfield takes over fisheries from his previous role as national revenue minister.
- Maxime Bernier returns to cabinet as minister of state for small business.
There was speculation that Kenney would move to foreign affairs and while he is staying at immigration, he does have some added responsibilities. Harper has made him chair of the cabinet committee on operations, the second-most important cabinet committee after the priorities and planning committee, chaired by the prime minister.
The operations committee co-ordinates the government's overall agenda, management and communications. It was previously led by Jim Prentice, who quit politics last fall. Baird had been filling in since then.
Rookie MP Joe Oliver is among the new appointees in cabinet, as minister of natural resources. Oliver defeated long-time Liberal MP Joe Volpe in the central Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence, helping the Conservatives crack into the Liberal stronghold in Canada's biggest city. His inclusion in cabinet means Toronto will finally be represented in Harper's cabinet.
Harper's new cabinet gave a loud round of applause and cheers as he entered the room for the ceremony.
Wednesday's shuffle is being described as a medium-sized one that will leave the cabinet roughly the same size it is now, with 38 members in total.
Election created vacancies
Harper had six vacancies to fill because of two retirements — Chuck Strahl and Stockwell Day did not run for re-election — and four election defeats.
Josée Verner, Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Gary Lunn and Cannon all lost their seats. All six of those gaps mean Quebec and British Columbia lost some representation at the cabinet table.
Harper had only five MPs to choose from in Quebec and two of them are already in cabinet — Lebel and Paradis — which may have had something to do with the decision to bring Maxime Bernier back into the inner circle to help boost Quebec's representation. The former foreign affairs minister resigned in 2008 after leaving confidential documents at his girlfriend's residence.
While pickings were slim in Quebec, there was no shortage of cabinet candidates from Alberta and Ontario.
The Tories hold all but one of Alberta's 28 seats, giving Harper plenty of choice for cabinet representation.
Similarly, the Conservatives needed to bulk up Ontario's contingent in cabinet after they finally broke through the Liberal fortress in Toronto, and have a number of capable rookie MPs joining the caucus from the city and its suburbs.
Clement, Flaherty and Baird, all from Ontario, have been steady and trusted ministers in Harper's cabinet.
In addition to geographic representation, Harper also had to be attuned to how many women he included in his cabinet. The old one had 10, including Senator Marjory LeBreton who is leader of the government in the Senate. Eight out of the other nine women were re-elected.
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