Hopes are riding high for a Liberal cabinet post
With the federal Liberals making a long- awaited Calgary breakthrough, expectations are high the city will have its first Liberal cabinet minister in decades when incoming Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveils his governing team on Wednesday.
When Kent Hehr was elected in Calgary Centre and Darshan Kang in Calgary Skyview in the Oct. 19 federal election, they became the first Liberals to win in the city since Pat Mahoney was victorious in 1968.
Mahoney served briefly as a minister of state without portfolio in the cabinet of Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre, in 1972 but lost in that year’s federal election, making him the last Liberal minister in Calgary.
But Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt believes that whether there is one minister or two from Alberta in the new cabinet, Calgary will have a seat at the cabinet table.
“You’ve got one of the stronger candidates in Kent Hehr, and Trudeau has spent an awful lot of time in Calgary — and achieving seats in Calgary was a major accomplishment for him,” Bratt said in an interview.
“And if he does not put a cabinet post in Calgary, that will diminish it.”
While Hehr is being touted by many observers as the next Grit cabinet minister from the city, the popular former MLA kept mum when briefly reached in Ottawa by the Herald this week.
“I’ll call you if things get relevant,” he said.
Kang, also a former Liberal MLA, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
But Ward 3 city councillor Jim Stevenson said he had lunch with Kang on Monday and the new MP suggested he would not be entering cabinet.
Stevenson, a vice- president on the executive committee of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, said he’s worked extensively with the 46- year- old Hehr and is confident the former provincial politician will fit the bill in cabinet.
He noted Hehr’s tirelessness, despite being left a quadriplegic after being the victim of a random driveby shooting when he was teenager.
“He really has a feel for what the people in his constituency want and I think he’ll have a real feel for what all of Calgarians want,” said Stevenson, who called infrastructure spending and the fate of projects such as the Green Line transit expansion key issues for the city.
Stevenson also praised former Edmonton city councillor Amarjeet Sohi, one of two new Liberal MPs elected in the provincial capital, and said he’s hopeful both Calgary and Edmonton will have a representative in Trudeau’s cabinet.
“It’s just being connected to the inner circle, that’s all. It’s having a voice at the cabinet table that’s important,” he said.
The new Liberal government replaces a Conservative government that had deep roots in Calgary, with city MP Stephen Harper serving as prime minister for nearly 10 years. For much of Harper’s time in office, there were at least two other ministers from Calgary in his cabinet.
While Mahoney was elected in the “Trudeaumania” election in 1968, the relationship between the party and the city soured over controversial Liberal policies such as the National Energy Program.
Bratt said the younger Trudeau could enhance the impact of putting a Calgarian into cabinet by giving Hehr a key ministry such as Natural Resources.
He said he expects Trudeau’s new government will have a good working relationship with Alberta’s NDP government, because there is broad agreement on areas such as climate change and infrastructure spending.
NDP house leader Brian Mason said Tuesday he hoped to see a minister from both Edmonton and Calgary, while Premier Rachel Notley said she will be watching Trudeau’s cabinet- making.