Month: May 2011

Cabinet shuffle and senate appointments

Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed his cabinet yesterday, and to the surprise of many, three Senators to the Upper Chamber were named just seconds after his press conference concluded at Rideau Hall.

What can be said that hasn’t already been said? Cabinet is too big and government spending needs to come down. Tony Clement’s appointment in Treasury Board is a good one; he’s been the PM’s hatchet man for a while and if the PM is serious about cuts, Clement will get it done. I’ve heard that strategic review may extend beyond 5% per department to eliminate the deficit earlier. Hopefully, this talk about the Tories balking on this promise from the campaign is just the classic lowering of expectations before over-delivering gambit that we usually see every budget.

Leona Aglukkaq’s appointment as Health minister shows that as serious health reforms come due in the next two years, the PM will likely quarterback many of these decisions from Langevin block.

John Baird’s appointment as Minister of the Lester B. Pearson building on Sussex means that some good Conservative changes to that institution are coming.

Maxime Bernier’s reappointment to cabinet in Small Business and Tourism is particularly encouraging. If Bernier delivers some proactive wins in that department, he should see himself moved up to full minister soon.

The Senate appointments of three losing candidates is disappointing. Apparently Josee Verner, Larry Smith and Fabian Manning all support Senate reform but it’s high time we see some real action and wins on this front. I think the PM may be building popular support against the Senate in its present form, a sort of reverse psychology on the electorate. Making real reforms to the Other Place will require the momentum from a critical mass of Canadians. When the PM proposes legislation, the NDP will look quite foolish if they oppose it. Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall criticized yesterday’s appointments and called them cynical, but it will require the will of Wall and his colleagues to have Senate nominee elections. One terrible hold-out has been Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach who fears the rise of Wild Rose partisan Senate nominees elected from that province.

As a communications strategy, the move was debated either as good or as bad. Those that argued it bad suggested that the PM big-footed the positive news of cabinet with the Senate story. I’d argue that the move was going to draw much criticism so pairing it with the cabinet appointments allowed the good story to jump on the grenade of the bad.

Next steps

The conservative movement is cautiously optimistic. Many had been holding their fire, guarding their words on a sincerely conservative agenda for Canada. For the movement, the minority Conservative government was an unhatched egg: great potential but ready to be scrambled by the opposition parties, useful idiots, and the media. Now that the egg has hatched, it’s time to teach this Conservative majority government bird how to fly. Parliamentary survival is no longer on the minds of movement conservatives, good policy is, at this time, the only concern.

Now that a plurality of Canadians has granted this government a majority mandate, we have an opportunity to show Canadians the maturity of the conservative movement and show that our ideas are actually quite common among the Canadian electorate. Lower taxes, deficit and debt elimination, and large moves to end the entitlement culture of Canada should be the primary objectives of and truly Conservative government. And for the conservative movement, our job is now two-fold: encouraging and scolding good and bad behavior respectively of this government, and ensuring an environment where future generations of Conservative governments can hatch.

The conservative movement should be a greater influence on the agenda of this government than the NDP in opposition. The conservative movement should also aim its efforts on encouraging Canadians to be more demanding of conservative ideas. If we are vocal and active, we should be able to accomplish much in the next four years and see the re-election of a sincerely Conservative government.

Why any of this matters

Today, when I woke up for an early flight this morning it was raining.  A grey morning with a crisp fresh air that has already briskly permeated a few days in our nation’s capital, these days bring renewal of a long anticipated spring ahead.

Indeed, it is easy to take such days for granted; life comes easy for most in our country, but today though we are blessed to live unburdened, we should not forget how we got to this May 2nd.

It was another day, nearly ten years ago that my generation reached its definitive moment; on a sunny and clear day in September four planes cut through the sky and into steel, glass and soil scarring the American and global psyche and challenging the very nature of the ideals we always strive to live but until that day had long since appreciated in full.

Last night at 11:35 pm in the East Wing of the White House, President Obama announced what many Americans thought they’d never hear.  The monster that masterminded the attacks of September 2001 had finally been brought to justice.  This century’s greatest coward met his end in a hail of bullets delivered by US Navy SEALs yesterday in a city 30 miles North of Islamabad.

I’m thinking of Captain Nichola Goodard this morning.  Nichola was an ordinary Canadian girl like any other; she was an outdoor enthusiast, a kind mother to her cats and dogs and sweetheart to her husband Jason.  Affectionately known as “Carebear” to her friends at home, this hometown all-Canadian girl was revered as a warrior to her brothers and sisters in the Canadian Forces.  Her LAV took gunfire in the Panjwaye District of Afghanistan in a pitched battle. Capt Goddard was fatally wounded and was Canada’s first female combat fatality.  Today, Capt Goddard’s sacrifice weighs heavily on my mind.

I am also thinking of Fawzia Koofi, Afghanistan’s most popular female Member of Parliament. While Capt. Goddard and Koofi had likely never met, these two have worked together to advance the liberty and hope of countless women in that Central Asian oft-forgotten country.  At great personal risk, Koofi stresses social and political change in a nation that is shamed by its history of brutal neglect and abuse that has high rates of infant and maternal mortality exacerbated by malnutrition and girls married off before they have reached their teenage years.  Now, while progress is slow, it is taking root; millions of girls are going to school.  Koofi’s has two daughters that reflect a changing mood; one wants to go into science and the other politics like her mom.  Koofi’s own ambitions may see her in a bid for the Presidency in 2014.

Today is election day in Canada.  Millions will vote and millions will wonder why they should be bothered. While take our spring days for granted, lest we forget the fall.  We are blessed with liberty and as a consequence, granted an easy path to let it drift into neglect.  There is no more poignant a reminder of our base responsibility as citizens than the violent exit of a sadist that brought ordinary people to accomplish the selflessly extraordinary.