Deckchairs on the Titanic – err, I mean cabinet shuffled

He came, he shuffled, he left. That’s right – ten cabinet ministers and minsters of state have new portfolios. And oh look – once again, women are under-represented. And there were demotions – Lisa Raitt for dropping the ball on the Chalk River file (and good luck with that hot potato, Christian Paradis), and Diane Ablonczy for giving tourism funding to Toronto Pride. (Not that anyone will admit that, but you know it’s true). And they’re all “Oh, we just want to give Lisa Raitt more government experience,” and “Giving Diane Ablonczy Minister of State for Seniors is totally a step up because it’s a growing field.” Uh huh. I believe that.

Michael Ignatieff, by the way, referred to said cabinet as “little puppets,” while Jack Layton was indignant that Labour is referred to as a junior portfolio.

Incidentally, sometime around the power outage on the Hill, Ignatieff revealed his party’s Canada 150 conference, which is what they’re dubbing the policy convention they’re having in Montreal at the end of March – what do they need to do before Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017?

But then there’s the logo:

Dale Smith is a freelance journalist in the Parliamentary Press Gallery and author of The Unbroken Machine: Canada's Democracy in Action.

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