Harper set to shuffle cabinet
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is poised to shuffle his front bench, setting in place the team that will carry the Conservative government into the 2015 election.
Ray Novak, Harper’s chief of staff, began phoning ministers and cabinet newcomers with their new assignments Saturday night, with the formal appointments set to be announced Monday morning at Rideau Hall. All ministers and deputy ministers have been summoned to be in the capital Monday, sources told The Canadian Press.
There is much talk of generational change as the Conservatives, now in power for more than seven years, seek to freshen up the front bench in an effort to take the bloom off Justin Trudeau’s reinvigorated Liberals and Tom Mulcair’s NDP.
The cabinet shuffle is seen as one step in a three-stage effort to shake the governing Conservatives out of a mid-mandate malaise.
A throne speech setting out refreshed policy themes is widely anticipated this fall, followed by a Conservative party policy convention in Calgary at the end of October.
A cabinet makeover has long been in Harper’s plan, but with the Conservatives routinely polling behind Trudeau’s Liberals this spring and the toll taken by the Senate spending scandal, the shuffle has taken on a new urgency.
“You’re going to be seeing the teams and the people that are really fighting it out for power in 2015,” said Jason Lietaer, a principal at government relations firm ENsight Canada and former Conservative insider.
“The prime minister is setting his lineup for the upcoming battle.”
Lietaer is among those who believe Harper will continue to play his winning card from the 2011 election that finally delivered the Conservatives their long-sought majority — economic competence and stability.
That means several key government stalwarts are staying put, while lesser cabinet portfolios are shuffled around them.
Some well-connected Conservatives argue that if Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird don’t move, it may be a cabinet makeover but it’s not a fundamental reset. All eyes will be on Flaherty. A recent exodus of staff from Flaherty’s office has fuelled speculation he could be on the way out, however the only finance minister Harper has ever appointed has openly lobbied to keep his job and says he wants to stay on until the government’s top priority, a balanced federal budget, is achieved — likely in 2015.
Flaherty is battling a painful skin disorder and many expect he won’t run again federally. Harper told cabinet members this winter to tell him if they were bowing out in 2015, as he would want to replace them this summer, making Flaherty an interesting case to watch.
Others to watch will be Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, Treasury Board President Tony Clement and Heritage Minister James Moore.
What’s known is that the prime minister has some gaps to fill.
Vic Toews announced his retirement from politics last week, opening up the important public safety portfolio.
Peter Penashue, Harper’s former intergovernmental affairs minister, resigned over campaign spending irregularities and was defeated in a byelection in March.
Keith Ashfield has left his post as the fisheries minister due to ill health, and Peter Kent has publicly indicated he’ll be out as environment minister — something confirmed Sunday by sources.
Harper’s popular junior finance minister, Ted Menzies, is also stepping aside, and Sen. Marjory LeBreton, the Conservative government leader in the Senate and cabinet member, is resigning her post.
The cabinet is almost certain to become younger and have more women in higher-profile roles.
Lietaer suggests that in areas where the government hasn’t been able to get matters “over the finish line” — long-delayed environmental regulations on the oil and gas sector come to mind — “a fresh set of eyes” might help.
Top priorities over the next two years include pulling the trigger on a trade deal, getting approval for a pipeline from Alberta’s oilsands to the tide line, and negotiating the proposed new federal job training grant with reluctant provincial governments.