Given that a potential Dion Government Cabinet would look vastly different from the shadow Cabinet he announced today, I’m not sure how much we can actually read into it. But it’s one of those things you sort of have to comment on so here are a few random thoughts:
–A BCer in Toronto has the demographic breakdowns. At first glance, it looks to me like there are lots of females, and lots of females in prominent positions.
-It will be interesting to see how the committees work and how much power they have. The committee heads don’t have shadow Cabinet roles, so how do you divide roles up between Bryan Wilfert who chairs the foreign affairs committee and Ujjal Dosanj who is the foreign affairs critic (and how does Raymond Chan figure into all of this as critic for “foreign affairs (Asia-Pacific)”?).
-With big names Ken Dryden and John Godfrey chairing two of the committees, it was surprising to see Wilfert and John MacKay get the other two.
-I’ll be very curious to see how David McGuinty handles the environment file. He’s an able performer in the house which is a neccesity for the portfolio, given the media scrutiny around that file these days.
-McCallum in Finance is a sound decision given his background and experience. Given the importance of Flaherty’s next budget, this is probably the most important critic portfolio.
-Irwin Cotler has been given “Human Rights”. I have no idea what exactly he’s responsible for since most human rights would seem to be covered by other critics.
-Brison to industry is the surest sign that there’s no vindictiveness left from the leadership race. After going Rae, then Ignatieff, Dion had more reason to punish Brison than anyone else but he’s instead rewarded him with a very juicy portfolio. Similarly, Dennis Coderre, who didn’t sound very excited about working with Dion on December 2nd, winds up in Defence.
-In a great move, Joe Volpe got transport. After watching his leadership campaign, no one has more experience at dealing with train wrecks than Joe.
In other news, the rumour is that Martha Hall Findlay’s bus driver will be getting the Ontario Desk in the PMO. No, this is not a clever satirical jab, it’s an actual rumour I heard from a fairly credible source.