Conservative cabinet
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced his new cabinet today. There are some new faces in the mix, including a few more women to even out the gender ratio. Some of the high profile jobs have been given back to the same people, but a few veteran MPs have been shifted to new portfolios. Below is a list of all of the ministers - not including the seven minister of states - and their roles, along with my random comments:
Rob Nicholson – Justice
Stockwell Day – International trade
He moved here from public safety. He once worked out at the gym I worked at in Cornwall.
Gerry Ritz – Agriculture
Vic Toews – Treasury Board
Peter McKay – Defence
The deputy prime minister easily beat Green party leader Elizabeth May to keep his seat in Nova Scotia. He’s keeping the defence portfolio from his last term.
Lawrence Cannon – Foreign affairs
Chuck Strahl – Indian affairs and northern development
Jim Flarety – Finance
In rough economic times, Harper kept Flarety in the finance position to avoid getting a new MP settled in the high-profile role. Hopefully he can keep Canada in the black.
Jason Kenney – Citizenship and immigration
Tony Clement - Industry
Jim Prentice – Environment
He’s going to have a ton of pressure from the opposition. Let’s hope he does a better job than his predecessor.
Bev Oda - International cooperation
Peter Van Loan – Public Safety
Rona Ambrose – Labour
Greg Thompson – Veteran’s affairs
Leona Aglukkaq – Health
Leona is the first Inuit to be appointed to a cabinet position. Good work, Leona! She was previously the health minister for Nunavut.
Lisa Raitt – Natural resources
Gail Shea – Fisheries and oceans
She won the Conservatives their only seat in Liberal-dominated PEI.
Jean-Pierre Blackburn – National revenue
John Baird – Transport
My man, John Baird. He’s the MP for my home riding, Ottawa West-Nepean. I wonder how much time he’ll spend in the spotlight in this job, compared to when he was environment minister.
Diane Finley - Human resources and skills development
James Moore – Heritage and official languages
Jay Hill – Leader of government in the House of Commons
He previously had the role of chief government whip. My brother-in-law is the policy chair for Hill’s district association in northern B.C.
Christian Paradis – Public works
Josee Verner – Intergovernmental affairs
Gordon O’Connor – Chief government whip
O’Connor is a third-term MP for Carleton-Mississippi Mills, the riding I work in. He moved to this role from minister of national revenue. A demotion? He just says it’s “different” and will be very challenging.
Parliament will resume Nov. 18, with the Governor General’s speech from the throne following the next day.
UPDATE: Here’s a great column reacting to the new appointments.
News flashes
Here’s some headlines catching my attention today:
Another province returns to Iraqi control.
That makes 13 of their 18 areas already under their own government, rather than coalition forces. It’s good to see progress – this kind of thing should be in the news more often.
Many see Palin as future of party.
Whether or not John McCain wins the election next Tuesday, Sarah Palin will stick around. Some believe, with some improvements, she could be the 2012 Republican candidate for president. I believe she’s done some good things for the party and for the campaign, but she still seems a long way from the White House.
Countdown: six days!
Little fun in provincial byelection.
Voters will cast their ballot for two MLAs in Vancouver today, but I don’t think a high turnout is expected. The federal election was just a couple of weeks ago, and the city is holding a municipal vote within a month – including the two ridings that have byelections today. Just in case the province was feeling left out, ballots will be cast for a new B.C. government next May.
Elvis ranked top-earning dead celebrity.
The King, though deceased for 30 years, is still making more money than some of the biggest pop stars of the day, including Justin Timberlake and Madonna. Last year he raked in $52 million. Number two on the Forbes.com list of famous people still earning big bucks after their death is Charles Schultz, and third was Heath Leger.
The first storm
WINTER STORM WATCH: City of Ottawa
AN EAST COAST LOW HAS FORMED NEAR NEW YORK AND IS EXPECTED TO INTENSIFY RAPIDLY TODAY BEFORE SLICING THROUGH SOUTHWESTERN QUEBEC TONIGHT. IN ADVANCE OF THIS SYSTEM AN EXPANDING AREA OF SIGNIFICANT RAIN WILL BLOSSOM ACROSS FAR EASTERN ONTARIO TODAY BEFORE CHANGING TO HEAVY WET SNOW IN MANY AREAS BY LATE AFTERNOON OR EARLY EVENING. IN A SWATH FROM OTTAWA THROUGH RENFREW TO ALGONQUIN SIGNIFICANT HEAVY SNOW WILL LIKELY SET IN LATE TODAY AND CONTINUE INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS UP TO 15 CENTIMETRES OR MORE ARE LIKELY BEFORE IT TAPERS OFF DURING THE DAY WEDNESDAY.
It’s not even November! I don’t think I’m okay with this.
Here’s my deal - I like winter. I enjoy the snow and I love being cozy inside during a storm. What I don’t like is the dirty slush that is everywhere, the minus 30 degree temperatures, the snowflakes that linger until April. Last winter was nearly a record-setter … hopefully this one won’t be quite as extreme.
Burkina Faso
My brother and his wife are currently on a plane heading for Africa. They are going to Burkina Faso for a six-month misisons trip. I am extremely proud of them and can’t wait to hear all their incredible stories when they return.
The highlighted portion is the country they will be in.
They will be working with the organization SIM in Mahadaga. Shannon, an RN, will be medical staff at a clinic. Jason is putting his computer skills to good use building a patient database for a centre for the handicapped.
They are two of my favourite people and I will miss them like crazy. Rock on, guys – I wish I was going with you!
If you want to know more about what they’re doing, go here.
Finding feet
Along the B.C. coast, seven detached human feet have been found. Police are still investigating who they belong to and what might have caused the severance.
A foot recently washed up on the shore of the Ottawa River. On Thursday, someone reported to police their very odd find. I can’t even imagine walking along a beach or something and realizing a human foot was lying in the sand. Creepy.
This foot belongs to the same person as the one that washed up over a year ago in the east end. Police say foul play wasn’t involved … but they haven’t discovered the cause yet.
Liberals in the red
The Liberals are a little short of cash.
This National Post columnist said while Stephane Dion might be able to pay off more of his own debts by remaining the leader until May, he’s not doing his party any favours. Either way, the national Liberals have a long way to go before they will be able to afford another election. They can barely pay for a leadership convention right now.
The Liberals have, at most, 30 months to recover from their devastating loss in last week’s federal election. The next vote is not likely to be any further away than two-and-a-half years; perhaps not that long.
In that time, the Liberals have to dig themselves out from under a mountain of debt and redo their policies and organization from top to bottom. That process cannot begin in earnest while Mr. Dion is leader. So long as his emaciated shadow broods over them, their plans, platform and fundraising will all be hobbled. And since he does not plan to go for another six months, he has shortened to 24 months the time his party has to remake itself into a force in the next federal election; less if the Tories pull the plug on Parliament two years or less from now.
Thanks to Mr. Dion’s vain and stubborn refusal to go away now, there is a good chance, no matter who succeeds him, that the Liberals will still be in a weakened state when the writs are dropped again.
hot air balloon, check
86. Go up in a hot air balloon
Another one crossed off my to-do list. (To see all 100 things, go here.)
What a phenomenal flight! I love planes, but this aircraft is something entirely different. The take-off was a little bumpy, but once we got to a certain height, the balloon went right with the wind and all was calm. The only noise was the propane heating the air to bring us higher and the quiet chatter of the other 10 passengers, plus the pilot.
The flight, from Carleton University to south of the airport, took about an hour. I took over 400 photos, but I’ll just share a few with you.
The balloon gets inflated with two huge fans …
Our pilot, Frank, fires up the propane to heat the air … then we begin to rise …
This is Carleton, looking north towards downtown …
It’s such a perfect angle to see the city …
Woo – I was enjoying myself. This photo comes courtesy of Lindsay, my fabulous flying partner.
We went over the airport, which was pretty spectacular. I’ve never watched a plane land underneath me like that!
We landed in a random field and the crew packed up as the sun set. I thought this shot of the propane igniter things was pretty cool.
Lindsay and I enjoy the champagne at the end – a ballooning tradition.
It was an all-around fabulous trip and I recommend the experience to everyone! I have all the video footage from the flight, which wasn’t much because my camera battery died pretty quickly, and I’ll have a compilation of it and more photos sometime soon for your viewing pleasure.
Dion resigns
Stephane Dion announced today that he will step downas leader of the national Liberal party in May, when the annual convention will be a leadership race. There was already speculation about who would be interim leader if Dion resigned immediately, but he promised to stay at the helm until a new one is chosen.
“We must look beyond leadership to understand what went wrong in the campaign. … and begin to fix our problems so that we can, I hope and I am confident, form a Liberal government again for all Canadians,” Mr. Dion said.
I’m not surprised he is leaving his position. He needed to step aside after the Liberal showing in the election and not wait until he was booted out by his party. He said, during a press conference today explaining his plan, that the Conservative attack ads portrayed him wrongly and that he was misrepresented. While that may be true, it’s also accurate to believe he struggles with communicating his ideas and lacks the charisma to rally people to his plans. While he is very smart and I’m sure very capable, those qualities are not obvious to the general public. He’s not the leader that I would be proud to have represent Canadians to other nations.
Here’s an interesting column from the Globe and Mail about where the Liberal leader went wrong and how he could have redeemed himself.
So … the big question is now, who will replace him?
Going hungry
People everywhere are worried about the economic downturn, but it’s the ones who are the least well-off that are hit the hardest.
The global food crisis is ongoing, and millions that are starving are also forgotten as people anxiously watch the stock market and re-evaluate their budget. According to this, the World Food Bank predicts the number of those not getting enough to eat will increase from 44 million to 967 million this year. That’s a massive increase.
As people hold their wallets tighter, giving to charities and food banks will probably slow down. There is concern that international aid organizations will have a harder time supplying the necessities. I believe a huge reason our economy is in such turmoil is that many have never learned to live with what they have - credit cards, debt and huge loans are all the norm. While we spend money we don’t have, those with nothing are suffering from our reckless behaviour.
I’ll carry some of the blame. More often than not I’d rather buy myself new shoes than give to the poor. But during this economic crisis, we must remember those who are less fortunate and work toward a solution for their needs, not just our own banks and investments.
Cheryl
