As a thought experiment, suppose cabinet mattered. Or at least, suppose we thought it should.
Suppose, that is, there were a number of serious issues facing the country — the economy, national security, climate change, social and economic inequality — of a kind that placed a premium on effective government action, and on cabinet as the central institution of that government.
In such circumstances we should insist not only that cabinet should perform, collectively, at the highest possible level, but that every member of it should be the best candidate for the job — that each should possess those qualities of judgment, experience, leadership, managerial competence, communications ability and so on that are required of a minister. That is, if cabinet mattered.
I realize I am describing a fantasy. Cabinet does not matter, and has not for some time, which is how we came to have a federal cabinet with 40 people in it. Even the notion that it should matter is very much a minority view. Rather, we expect cabinet to perform a rather different role from the one I have described. It does not govern: that is the job of the prime minister, and of the group of political staff he has around him, and of the bureaucracy beyond them. The cabinet’s job, rather, is to provide representation — to “reflect the country back to itself” — in a way that we used to expect of Parliament.
more
Andrew Coyne: Liberals’ idea for gender quota in Cabinet leaves out the principle of merit | National Post
fun trip down memory lane here:
Misogynistic comments about Conservative cabinet ministers from Trudeau and NDP MP Cleary
When specifically asked by a reporter about the women appointed by PM Stephen Harper to cabinet Monday, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau called them “mouthpieces” as the video above shows and not a peep was heard from the Media Party.
Now today, we get this from NDP MP Ryan Cleary:
Tell me if Harper had said what Trudeau did or a Conservative MP tweeted that about female opposition MPs the Media Party wouldn’t be frothing at the mouth.
https://bcblue.wordpress.com/2013/0...net-ministers-from-trudeau-and-ndp-mp-cleary/
Suppose, that is, there were a number of serious issues facing the country — the economy, national security, climate change, social and economic inequality — of a kind that placed a premium on effective government action, and on cabinet as the central institution of that government.
In such circumstances we should insist not only that cabinet should perform, collectively, at the highest possible level, but that every member of it should be the best candidate for the job — that each should possess those qualities of judgment, experience, leadership, managerial competence, communications ability and so on that are required of a minister. That is, if cabinet mattered.
I realize I am describing a fantasy. Cabinet does not matter, and has not for some time, which is how we came to have a federal cabinet with 40 people in it. Even the notion that it should matter is very much a minority view. Rather, we expect cabinet to perform a rather different role from the one I have described. It does not govern: that is the job of the prime minister, and of the group of political staff he has around him, and of the bureaucracy beyond them. The cabinet’s job, rather, is to provide representation — to “reflect the country back to itself” — in a way that we used to expect of Parliament.
more
Andrew Coyne: Liberals’ idea for gender quota in Cabinet leaves out the principle of merit | National Post
fun trip down memory lane here:
Misogynistic comments about Conservative cabinet ministers from Trudeau and NDP MP Cleary
When specifically asked by a reporter about the women appointed by PM Stephen Harper to cabinet Monday, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau called them “mouthpieces” as the video above shows and not a peep was heard from the Media Party.
Now today, we get this from NDP MP Ryan Cleary:
Tell me if Harper had said what Trudeau did or a Conservative MP tweeted that about female opposition MPs the Media Party wouldn’t be frothing at the mouth.
https://bcblue.wordpress.com/2013/0...net-ministers-from-trudeau-and-ndp-mp-cleary/
