One advantage of the new slimmed-down Liberal caucus is that Justin Trudeau has fewer people to disappoint when he chooses his next cabinet. The Nov. 20 swearing-in of Trudeau’s next ministry is still several weeks away, but cabinet speculation is already rampant in Ottawa. The big question so far has revolved around how Trudeau will make sure that Alberta and Saskatchewan are represented around the cabinet table. But that’s just one of the conundrums the prime minister faces in shuffling the ministry to fit the new reality of minority government. Here are some of the other hard decisions Trudeau needs to make in the weeks ahead, floated on the assumption that he’s using this extra-long time to do a significant overhaul. Finance: Ministers tend to stay a long time at finance. Jim Flaherty stayed in that job through eight years and two elections after Stephen Harper appointed him as his first finance minister in 2006. Paul Martin’s tenure stretched nine years and two elections too, when Jean Chrétien was prime minister. So Bill Morneau, based on that recent history, may well be assuming that nothing much changes for him on Nov. 20. But Canada has never had a female finance minister, and Trudeau may want to use this opportunity to do a because-it’s-2019 appointment to this very senior job. A natural choice would be Chrystia Freeland, but it would also mean moving her from the foreign affairs post where she’s well respected and effective. Public Safety: The defeat of Ralph Goodale isn’t just a blow to Trudeau’s western representation, but also to a ministry where Goodale’s age, experience and general level-headedness was extremely valuable. Goodale was the voice of public safety in an uncertain world. There is also an obvious replacement here too: Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief who now serves as border security minister, re-elected in Scarborough last Monday — though no one knows whether ...
|
