I've recently discovered CTV/Globe and Mail reporter David Akin's blog (Dave Akin's On the Hill) and he has had some interesting posts over the weekend on what his sources are telling him about the make-up of Stephen Harper's cabinet.
Here's some of the highlights of his post this morning:
- Only two ministers from BC, and Stockwell Day will not be one of them. James Moore is one, and the other will be either Jay Hill or Betty Hinton.
- No Monte Solberg either, it seems Steve-o wasn't impressed with his costing hiccup around their platform release.
- Rob Nicholson in finance.
- House leader Jason Kenney.
- No Stephen Fletcher or Gordon O'Connor.
- Diane Ablonczy goes into the fire at HRDC.
My thoughts
If Harper is going with merit over loyalty it makes sense to keep Stock out, but to those with more knowledge of internal CPC politics I ask does Harper have enough capital to anger the so-con wing of the party by not giving Day a cabinet post?
Also, only two Ministers from B.C. but (according to Akin) 5 from Alberta (incl. Harper)? That's going to piss off what has been the CPC's biggest base of support going back to the Reform days. And remember, the Liberals had 5 ministers from B.C (six with Sen. Jack Austin). Yes, Harper's cabinet will be smaller, but he needs to tread carefully.
Why is Monte left holding the bag for the costing thing? It sounded like a staffing foul-up to me and I'd be willing to bet the staff were from the leader's office. I like Monte, he has been a tenacious and effective Finance critic and he deserves a spot in cabinet.
Makes sense for O'Connor not to be in (numbers and lobbyist), he'd be a good chair of the defence committee though. Maybe it's a numbers thing, but I'd hoped to see Fletcher in. And Ablonczy to HRDC, that will be interesting. She was quite righteous and indignant as HRDC critic, now we'll see if she can do any better.
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