You... Are... Outta Here!

Yes, well, as expected, Rona "We Mean Business" Ambrose got turfed from the Environment Portfolio today, and shuffled off to baby-sit the provincial governments via the Intergovernmental Affairs portfolio. By the way, Rona, thanks for the calendar! Indeed, the mail this morning contained a lovely 2007 wall calendar featuring pictures of, well, Rona Ambrose (no, not that kind of picture; get your mind out of the gutter!). Yes, the freakin' Minister of the Environment sent out a multi-page unsolicited vanity mass-mailing to about 40,000 households. Anyway, what of her replacement? It's this guy. My first impression is pretty much "meh." He's apparently a "rising star" in the Conservative party, whatever that means (Ed.: It means he's going to end up in intergovernmental affairs, and soon), and he shares his party's unhealthy obsession with the Liberals. Beyond that, hard to say at this time.

However, the ritual sacrifice of Rona Ambrose was not the only thing going on, cabinet-wise, today. Let's take a look at the other moves, shall we?

Rob Nicholson: from House leader to justice minister and attorney general. Ok, fine, whatever. At least Vic Toews isn't in there anymore.

Vic Toews: from justice minister to president of the Treasury Board. This is a good move, if only because it is hard to imagine a person less suited to being justice minister than Vic Toews.

Monte Solberg: from Immigration to Human Resources and Social Development. The idea of Monte Solberg and "social development" being mentioned in the same sentence is hilarious. However, he'll do less harm there than in Immigration, which requires one not to pal around with foaming racists.

Peter Van Loan: from Intergovernmental Affairs and sport to government House leader and democratic reform minister. I don't know much about this fellow, except that he seems to have close ties to the Baltic nations.

Diane Finley: from Human Resources to Citizenship and Immigration. She's been fairly quiet in parliament, although she did get up and blather against same-sex marriage a couple of times.

Harper also made Jason Kenney Dogsbody Secretary of State for multiculturalism and Canadian identity. He did this because he needed, once more, to demonstrate his unbridled contempt for Canada and Canadians in general.