Do the Shuffle

Steve is all set to do the shuffle around 3:45 pm ET today, according to The Star:

Harper is believed to be shifting the embattled Gordon O'Connor out of the defence portfolio, making room for a more trusted communicator on Canada's controversial military role in Afghanistan.

He doesn't need a "more effective communicator" (read: government propagandist). Canada needs someone who knows what the hell they're actually doing considering our troops are still at war. (Sidebar: And no, the Afghanistan war is not a "peacekeeping" mission.)

Last night, sources said there could be three other significant shifts: Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay; Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice, one of Harper's most trusted cabinet members; and Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, a Quebecer.

MacKay: useless
Prentice: useless
Bernier: useless

Mind you, considering the Conservative crowd Steve has to choose from and the fact that it's his policies that are the problem in those portfolios, whoever he chooses will no doubt be just as useless as well.

La Presse reported last night that Prentice was being shifted to defence, MacKay would assume the industry portfolio, Josée Verner, the minister for international co-operation, was moving to heritage, and O'Connor was going to veterans affairs.

None of these purported moves could be confirmed late last night.

Shuffling the incompetent to positions where they can be just an ineffective. Great strategy there, Steve.

Cabinet ministers passed through the Prime Minister's residence at 24 Sussex Drive yesterday for one-on-one meetings with Harper.

Those ferried to Harper's home included: Nicholson, Finley, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon, Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson, and government House leader Peter Van Loan.

Let's hope Day got his walking papers. I sure wouldn't be shedding any tears over that. He could use more Seadoo time anyway.

And this proves just how out of touch this government is with reality and the majority of Canadians:

...the source said it would be surprising if the Prime Minister drops anyone from cabinet altogether. The view inside is that no one has triggered a scandal or made major gaffes, even if some ministers' communications skills with the media or within their own departments, are wanting.

What??

The income trust tax, the cover up of how Afghan detainees are treated, the shallow efforts at dealing with the environment, the slashing of programs for women and those who used the court challenges program, the refusal to get Omar Khadr out of Gitmo, the pandering of MacKay to the US government, covering up RCMP and CSIS incompetence in the Arar affair, killing the Kelowna and Kyoto accords, selling out Canada's sovereignty under the guise of "security and prosperity" ...and that's just the short list.

This is not about communication skills, Steve.

This is about incompetent, authoritarian and secretive governance. It's about ignoring human and civil rights. It's about a "father knows best" approach to what's good for this country. We don't need a father. We need people who understand that they work for us.

So, shuffle your minions, who you don't allow to speak for themselves anyway. In the end, the same old faces in new positions won't make a damn bit of difference because it's your policies that need shuffling - right out the door.

Related: CanWest has more - "Harper's cabinet shuffle sure to disappoint".

I'll update this post once the decks on the Titanic have been reorganized.

Update: There's a lot of speculation flying around - CBC Newsworld's Julie Van Dusen pondering that MacKay may get the defence job but, from CBC's site via CP:

As well, Harper could move Treasury Board president Vic Toews, a former attorney-general in Manitoba with an interest in law and order, to public safety, paving the way for Day to go to defence.

Oh horror of horrors - Day as defence minister.

Political science professor Barry Kay of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.,:

"The cabinet ministers don't matter so much anymore. They don't matter so much in policy and this is certainly true of Harper. I think he's very comfortable with the idea [that] he runs the show; he makes the big decisions. He basically presents the face and the agenda of the government."

Exactly.

Shades of:

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."

—President-elect George W. Bush, at a photo-op with congressional leaders during his first trip to Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Dec. 19, 2000

Update: According to CBC teevee's live (red carpet) reporting, the following Conservatives have shown up so far -

MacKay
Bernier
Ablonczy (smiling)
O'Connor
(Gerry) Ritz
Vernier

more as they arrive...

Those who have not shown up:

Day
Flaherty
Baird

Jack Layton is in the building too.

Looks like Rick Hillier (who's been acting like a politician anyway) has a front row seat.

Steve will hold a press conference at 5-5:30 (?) pm ET.

Mike Duffy (CTV) told his on-scene reporter to "go for it" when he thought he had the list of new appointments and then quickly changed his mind and said (paraphrasing) - "Never mind, you'll probably be shot by an RCMP sniper".

Update: Here's the shuffle

MacKay - defence
O'Connor - national revenue
Oda - international cooperation
Vernier - heritage
Prentice - industry
Bernier - foreign affairs
Ritz - agriculture
Strahl - Indian affairs
Ablonczy - sec of state for small business & tourism

Catch the live coverage online at CBC's site.

CTV has the story up.
 

The Rhinos are Back!

And now, there's a new "neo Rhino" party too.

Via the Globe and Mail: (h/t penlan)

Their reappearance aims to revive a party that helped enliven politics from 1963 to 1988 with an absurdist take on Canadian affairs. The party says it picked a rhino as its mascot since, like politicians, the animal is thick-skinned, slow-moving and dim-witted. Among its planks was flattening the Rockies, banning guns and butter since both killed, and improving higher education by building taller schools.

Behind their latest antics, however, they say they're drawing attention to some serious issues. Mr. Salmi says the $1,000 deposit required by the federal Elections Act is a deterrent for lower-income Canadians, and violates the Charter.

"It's a de facto economic means test that discriminates against the poor," said Mr. Salmi, a Montreal resident who has sought office on nine previous occasions, several of them in British Columbia. (Mr. Salmi has legally changed his name to Sa Tan, so his challenge in Federal Court reads Sa Tan against Her Majesty The Queen.)

The Rhinoceros Party last ran in a general federal election in 1988, fielding 74 candidates. None was elected, and the nascent groups say they're intent on matching that abysmal performance.
[...]

What they've promised

A dam on the St. Lawrence to make Montreal the Venice of North America;

A tax on milk to finance the appointment of Rhino followers to a new Ontario senate;

A 400-kilometre fishing limit to be drawn offshore in watercolour, to make sure the fish could see it and stay inside the Canadian boundary;

A Guaranteed Annual Orgasm through a network of regulated brothels;

To repeal the law of gravity (promised by Rhinos in 1984);

A proposal for free trade with the United States: "Trade Frank Zappa for Pierre Berton, Kermit the Frog for Lorne Greene, and we were prepared to put Anne Murray on the bargaining table."

See wiki for more.

The Rhino Party also declared that, should they somehow actually win an election, they would immediately dissolve and force a second election.

Michel Rivard once went on TV (during free air time given to political parties) and stated: "I have but two things to say to you: Celery and Sidewalk. Thank you, good night."

A British Columbia splinter group proposed running a professional dominatrix for the position of party whip, renaming "British Columbia" to "La La Land", moving the provincial capital, and merging with the Progressive Conservative Party so as "not to split the silly vote."

I don't know about you but I know who I'm voting for now when the next election rolls around.