SHUFFLE: ONTARIO WINS, QUEBEC LOOSES 
by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES

Ontario, environment, immigration, minorities and women—these are the five messages Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted to give in presenting the Cabinet sworn in last week.

Giving the three major economic portfolios to MPs coming from Ontario—Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, Industry Minister Tony Clement and Transport and Infrastructure Minister John Baird—Harper definitely wanted to send a message to the biggest Canadian province that his government recognizes the problems it's in and it wants to help.

If the previous Conservative government was slanted towards Quebec, the message this time is clearly slanted towards Ontario. I don't believe that the Harper government will punish Quebec for not responding to his electoral appeal, but I'm quite sure that Ottawa will not go out of its way to please Quebec like it did in the past. Quebec will be treated just like any other province of this country. And that's the way it should be. It was instead about time that Ottawa pay attention to Ontario whose economy has been struggling for a long time.

Harper has also increased the number of women in his new Cabinet. Of course the news is not just the increase in the number but the quality of the portfolios the women are now holding. It's still not enough, but it's a step in the right direction.

The other three messages are related to minorities, immigration and the environment. Of course, the first two are strictly connected to the activity of new Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. He is one of the closest and most effective advisers to Prime Minister Harper. The fact that he has moved Kenney into the Immigration Department, along with his responsibilities for multiculturalism, means two things: first, Harper wants to solve, or at least start solving the huge problems in immigration; second the Prime Minister wants one of his trusted advisers to keep working with minorities and break the almost monopolist relationship they had, up to now, with the Liberal Party. We can be sure that pretty soon we will have news on the backlog of new potential immigrants waiting for an answer at our doorstep or about the hundreds of thousands of people living and working in Canada without proper documentation.

The last point is environment. It is strange how we in the media judge a government appointment. If the Prime Minister appoints someone who is considered weak to a certain portfolio, we jump on it saying that the government doesn't care about that particular sector that should be at the top of the government priorities. When, on the other hand, someone strong is appointed to the position that is not Finance or Foreign Affairs, we say that the minister has been demoted.

Point in case: Jim Prentice's move from Industry to Environment. I believe that Harper, along with immigration, considers environment the sector his government is going to be very involved in in the future, nationally and internationally. With Prentice's appointment, Harper has given a message that this sector is important and, at the same time, the solution to its problems must be found within an economic framework. And who better than Prentice to handle both issues? He was prepared for the framework by his former ministry.

With the new government, Harper has given a message of openness and a sign that he will give more responsibilities to his ministers. In the past, he was accused, rightly or wrongly, of being too hands-on, considerably reducing the activity of his ministers. It was maybe because they had no experience and were all new. Now there are less rookies and people with more experience; this will also give more opportunities for him to be more involved in international issues along with his new minister of foreign affairs.

Things, at least on paper, look much better than before. Now we have to wait and see if they work