This was a pretty standard Cabinet making exercise, with few surprises. Among the highlights:

The Strong Performers Get Promoted

Jim Prentice winds up with Environment (presumably because he’s the only member of caucus who owns a hybrid car) and Lawrence Cannon gets Foreign Affairs, meaning we’ll quickly see if the strong reputations Harper’s HoC flank-men have built up are due to their competence or the fact they’ve handled rather benign portfolios to date. Tony Clement replaces Prentice in Industry, which should booster Clement’s bio for the next time he decides he wants to lose a leadership race.

Jason Kenney gets rewarded for bringing over a large number of ethnic voters, by being given Immigration. James Moore gets another well deserved promotion, becoming Minister of Rich People Galas. Peter Van Loan’s reward for (not) answering 90% of the questions in the house? Public Safety.

Oh, and Peter MacKay becomes Minister in charge of Danny Williams.

The Weak Performers Get Demoted

Josee Verner has been sent to Cabinet purgatory – Intergovernmental Affairs. So long Josee! Gerry Ritz stays in place, which means costing Harper his majority is a bigger offense than cracking listeria jokes. Oh, and apparently “gross incompetence” also rats fairly low on list, since Gordon O’Connor managed to, yet again, keep his spot.

As for John Baird? Off to Transport! I look forward to learning about how the Liberals neglected that file for 13 long years.

Garry Lunn also gets knocked down to sport.

New Faces Get Big Roles

As expected, the new women have featured prominently in the new Cabinet. Leonna Aglukkaq will put her experience as Mayor of Wasilla a Nunavut CabMin to work right away in Health, while Lisa Raitt gets Natural Resources and Gail Shea gets Fisheries.

Denis Lebel, Keith Ashfield, and Peter Kent all get Minister of State titles too, although it’s wholly possible that Lebel and Ashfield were just invisible backbenchers rather than new members.