WELCOME TO 2007
I know that it is a little late but I just wanted to wish everyone all the best in 2007. Arriving with the new year are some interesting changes in the Canadian political landscape. Coming up on the one year anniversary of the current Conservative minority government Harper has made a few changes with his Cabinet. Also, there is a new face in the Conservative party and one less for the Liberals. With this, the NDP now holds the balance of power in the House of Commons.
Harper made seven changes to his Cabinet, the most notable one is the replacement of Rona Ambrose with John Baird in the environment minister. Ambrose now holds the portfolio of Intergovernmental Affairs along with minister of western economic diversification and president of the Privy Council. Other changes include Rob Nicholson replacing Vic Toews as Justice Minister, Toews becoming President of the Treasury Board, Monte Solberg to Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, and Peter Van Loan to Minister of Democratic Reform and government House leader.
Ambrose has been in the hot seat lately with the unveiling of the Conservative Clean Air Act and it was foreseeable that she would be replaced as Environment Minister even though she was doing an excellent job. All of the other changes to the cabinet I could not predict so it is yet to be seen if we have a better cabinet now then we did before.
In a move that I think should have come sooner we have former Liberal MP Wajid Khan joining the Conservative party. Why, you may ask should this move have been done sooner? It is simply because Khan has been advising Stephen Harper on the Middle East and Afghanistan for almost five months now. Khan is a former Pakistani military pilot who moved to Canada back in 1974. This brings the Conservative seat total in the House of Commons up to 125 and leaving the Liberals at 101. The most interesting thing to note here is that it leaves the 29 member NDP with the balance of power in the House of Commons.
I have always said that the second best thing to a Conservative majority government is a Conservative minority government with the NDP holding the balance of power. Now that the NDP hold the balance of power that means that the Conservatives just need to get the NDP's support on certain issues in order to pass legislation instead of worrying about the Liberals or the Bloc. Now obviously, you may be thinking that the Conservatives and the NDP will never agree on anything but the truth is that if you put issues such as Afghanistan, taxes, and social programs aside there are quite a few similarities between the two. The similarities that I am talking about are things like democratic reform, crime control, government accountability and national unity. The NDP and the Conservatives are currently working together to change the Clean Air Act so that it can pass.
Of course, the Conservatives are not going to get the support of the NDP on a lot of things which I have already mentioned but it is a step forward then where we were. The House of Commons is set to reconvene in the new year during the last week of this month right around the anniversary of the last election which put Harper in the PM's seat. It will be interesting to see what will happen with a new Liberal leader and the balance of power resting in the NDP's hands.
- DCM
I know that it is a little late but I just wanted to wish everyone all the best in 2007. Arriving with the new year are some interesting changes in the Canadian political landscape. Coming up on the one year anniversary of the current Conservative minority government Harper has made a few changes with his Cabinet. Also, there is a new face in the Conservative party and one less for the Liberals. With this, the NDP now holds the balance of power in the House of Commons.
Harper made seven changes to his Cabinet, the most notable one is the replacement of Rona Ambrose with John Baird in the environment minister. Ambrose now holds the portfolio of Intergovernmental Affairs along with minister of western economic diversification and president of the Privy Council. Other changes include Rob Nicholson replacing Vic Toews as Justice Minister, Toews becoming President of the Treasury Board, Monte Solberg to Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, and Peter Van Loan to Minister of Democratic Reform and government House leader.
Ambrose has been in the hot seat lately with the unveiling of the Conservative Clean Air Act and it was foreseeable that she would be replaced as Environment Minister even though she was doing an excellent job. All of the other changes to the cabinet I could not predict so it is yet to be seen if we have a better cabinet now then we did before.
In a move that I think should have come sooner we have former Liberal MP Wajid Khan joining the Conservative party. Why, you may ask should this move have been done sooner? It is simply because Khan has been advising Stephen Harper on the Middle East and Afghanistan for almost five months now. Khan is a former Pakistani military pilot who moved to Canada back in 1974. This brings the Conservative seat total in the House of Commons up to 125 and leaving the Liberals at 101. The most interesting thing to note here is that it leaves the 29 member NDP with the balance of power in the House of Commons.
I have always said that the second best thing to a Conservative majority government is a Conservative minority government with the NDP holding the balance of power. Now that the NDP hold the balance of power that means that the Conservatives just need to get the NDP's support on certain issues in order to pass legislation instead of worrying about the Liberals or the Bloc. Now obviously, you may be thinking that the Conservatives and the NDP will never agree on anything but the truth is that if you put issues such as Afghanistan, taxes, and social programs aside there are quite a few similarities between the two. The similarities that I am talking about are things like democratic reform, crime control, government accountability and national unity. The NDP and the Conservatives are currently working together to change the Clean Air Act so that it can pass.
Of course, the Conservatives are not going to get the support of the NDP on a lot of things which I have already mentioned but it is a step forward then where we were. The House of Commons is set to reconvene in the new year during the last week of this month right around the anniversary of the last election which put Harper in the PM's seat. It will be interesting to see what will happen with a new Liberal leader and the balance of power resting in the NDP's hands.
- DCM
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