Categories: Andrew Coyne

A double shot of At Issue

May 27
May 29…

by Andrew Coyne on Friday, May 30, 2008 6:26pm - 0 Comments


May 27	May 29

Tags: At Issue, cabinet shuffle, Maxime Bernier

More by Andrew Coyne

Why the CBC should be more like HBO

Whatever their motives might be, the CBC’s antagonists are, on the whole, right
In conversation: Mark Carney

On Europe’s crisis, ﬁghting inﬂation, and his new job heading the financial stability board
Decency alone can’t save Parliament

Andrew Coyne on an institution that’s largely irrelevant and increasingly impotent

Wayne

I just heard something awhile back about maybe Harper will bring soemone out of the Senate like Hugh Segull – I was not aware of this ability of a PM to designate someone who is not an MP to a cabinet post = is this for real are there past examples. If I had some more time I would dig into this on my own but if anyone out there knows about this I certainly would appreciate a point in the right direction?
T. Thwim

Absolutely legal. That’s how he got Michael Fortier into his Cabinet. Precedents include Joe Clark and Trudeau, who also appointed people to the senate to become part of cabinet.

Fortier, who ran for the leadership of the conservative party in 1998 (coming in last with 4% of the vote), also ran in the 2000 federal election in the Laval Quebec riding. He came in 4th behind the Bloc, Liberal, and Alliance Candidate.

In the 2006 Election, Fortier didn’t run, saying “I didn’t want to run in the election. I had a great career, five young kids, and so it wasn’t the right situation for me to run when the election came around. That’s just the simple truth.”

Fortunately for him, being appointed as an unelected (one might even say electorally rejected) senator only requires that you be a co-chair of Stephen Harper’s Leadership Campaign, and living in Montreal which solidly rejected all conservative candidates.
Ryan

Wayne, the appointing of MPs to Cabinet is just a convention of ours but it isn’t required. I’m not sure when it developed in the Westminister system or if it ever was not this way. It does seem to me, in the wake of all the media attention given to Harper’s lack of cabinet-ready MPs, that we might want to revisit this convention. Add in all the attention given to regional/ethnic/gender makeup, and the PM’s pool of potential ministers gets quite small. Perhaps he’d be better off finding someone from the private sector or academia or wherever to serve as foreign minster. I’m sure he’d be pilloried for this because it’s unusual, but I don’t see a problem with it.
TobyornotToby

Yes, appoint some Senators to cabinet. I’m thinkin’ Spezza or Heatley to put a little size on the first line.
Pingback: Steynianism 158 « Free Mark Steyn!
grok

Man, you can really get a broad spectrum of opinion from all Canadians by having correspondents in Toronto, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Kinda covers the land from sea to sea, don’t it.
Sisyphus

Not only from sea to shining sea but also from
conservative to more conservative to whatever
the hell Coyne is …… ? Hayek holdover?
Regan

Grok, Sisyphus,you might be interested in Frank Moher’s comments on the spectrum of opinion offered by the At Issue panel, which can be found at:

http://jsource.ca/english_new/detail.php?id=2491
george hebert

I would like to now who at cbc made the disssision to change the
writing at the bottom of the TV and replace it with smaller letter and
faster from left to wright do they think the people that watch. the
cbc.nw are younge people with 20/20 vision ane speed reader
thank god we have CTV with bigger letter and slower writng
for sinior