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[CreeperBlocks]

Justin's Star Wars fandom continues this Holloween

Justin is dressed up like Han Solo in Hoth outfit (the blue winter coat) and Sophie is dressed up like Leia from Empire Strkes Bike

if Justin has Empire Strikes Back as his favorite Star Wars movie, than Canada is in good hands with him as Prime Minister.


http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/trick-...y-dresses-up-for-halloween-saturday-1.2637161

May the force be with you Trudeau

 

[gabbo]

Mike Harris was the notorious Ontario PC leader who privatized a lot of government assets in a fire sale, amalgamated the suburbs around Toronto into Metro Toronto (eventually resulting in Rob Ford getting elected mayor by offering to cut a $60 car tax and to cancel a downtown LRT transit plan that won him all the suburb wards while losing all of downtown Toronto), and laid off thousands of teachers and nurses to afford tax cuts. Mike Harris also "downloaded" a lot of costs to municipalities that used to be paid for by the province to pay for personal and business income tax cuts, causing local property taxes to go up to compensate. To be fair, the economy in Ontario did improve a lot under Mike Harris, so maybe some of his tax cuts helped.

After stepping down, Mike Harris' replacement Earnie Eaves became infamous for saying then Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty had a pointy head, then losing the election with strong union opposition.

John Tory lost an easy win election against Dalton McGuinty's scandal plagued government by announcing that he would give everyone the ability to opt out of public school and take their vouchers to private religious schools. Most Canadians recognize that public schools are the reason our society works, they allow people of all different socioeconomic, racial, religious and cultural backgrounds to mingle and learn not to fear each other. School vouchers would inevitable lead to an extremely segregated society.

The next PC leader Tim Hudak lost an easy win against Kathleen Wynne who inherited Dalton McGuinty's scandal plagued government that paid over $1 Billion in penalty fees to cancel unpopular gas power plants to win 2 MP risings, by announcing that he would cut 100,000 government jobs and somehow create 1 Million private sector jobs in the process. People got scared of the cuts and as others have mentioned previously, there was nowhere close to 1 Million unemployed people in the province.

New PC leader Patrick Brown is against abortion, against same-sex marriage, and against sex education in schools. The Ontario PCs went from a serious of fiscal conservative leaders to now a social conservative leader, in the most diverse province in Canada, that just gave a majority government a lesbian woman Premier introducing a new sex education curriculum that acknowledges the existence of homosexuality, masturbation and oral sex. The optics on Patrick Brown vs. Kathleen Wynne are definitely not in the favour of the PC, who risk coming out of the next election looking like bigots. The Ontario PC already kinda look bigoted, with one of their MPs emphatic that Kathleen Wynne was especially unsuited for changing sex education, even though she was a teacher and education minister, the implication being that her being lesbian should disqualify her from changing sex education. Also, Stephen Harper ran an anti-Muslim federal Conservative campaign in the final weeks of the federal election, which will only further tarnish the Ontario PCs reputation with new Canadians.

Basically, any non-PC party only has to bring up the specter of the Common Sense Revolution and Mike Harris, and they've accomplished more fear in the electorate than niqab and Muslims being secretly ISIS infiltrators ever could

 

[Sean C]

Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star claims to have the inside scoop on the cabinet. 28 ministers total (14 men, 14 women), with 5 from Atlantic Canada, 6 from Quebec, 10 from Ontario (6 from the GTA, 1 apiece from Ottawa, Eastern, Southwestern, and Northern Ontario), 1 apiece from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Territories, 3 from British Columbia. Supposedly 1 Sikh (inside track is Navdeep Bains), 2 Aboriginals (Wilson-Raybould and Tootoo), and the article lists a number of veterans and newcomers who are likely not making it in.

Okay, so, my guesses:

5 from Atlantic Canada: Scott Brison, Judy Foote, Dominic LeBlanc, either Sean Casey or Wayne Easter, and a woman from NS or NB; probably Bernadette Jordan.

6 from Quebec: Trudeau himself, Stephane Dion, Marc Garneau, Melanie Joly, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Diane Lebouthillier.

5-6 from GTA: Chrystia Freeland, Bill Morneau, Navdeep Bains, Kirsty Duncan, ?, ?

1 from Ottawa: Andrew Leslie.

1 from Southwestern Ontario: ?

1 from Northern Ontario: Patty Hajdu.

1 from Eastern Ontario: ?

1 from Manitoba: The article says likely Jim Carr, but could also be MaryAnn Mihychuk.

1 from Saskatchewan: Ralph Goodale.

1 from Alberta (this kind of surprised me; I was expecting 2): Amarjeet Sohi or Kent Hehr.

3 from British Columbia: Jody Wilson-Raybould, Joyce Murray, and either Pamela-Goldsmith-Jones or Carla Qualtrough.

1 from the Territories: Hunter Tootoo.

 

[Fuzzy]

The next PC leader Tim Hudak lost an easy win against Kathleen Wynne who inherited Dalton McGuinty's scandal plagued government that paid over $1 Billion in penalty fees to cancel unpopular gas power plants to win 2 MP risings, by announcing that he would cut 100,000 government jobs and somehow create 1 Million private sector jobs in the process. People got scared of the cuts and as others have mentioned previously, there was nowhere close to 1 Million unemployed people in the province.

Hudak's 1 million new jobs wasn't even listed as a million in the PC platform, it was 125k 1-year jobs X 8 years. :lol

 

[jstripes]

Basically, any non-PC party only has to bring up the specter of the Common Sense Revolution and Mike Harris, and they've accomplished more fear in the electorate than niqab and Muslims being secretly ISIS infiltrators ever could

The PCs do a pretty good job of that all by themselves, with the leaders they choose.

 

[gabbo]

The PCs do a pretty good job of that all by themselves, with the leaders they choose.

Yes, but they always try to couch it in tax cuts and family values before driving it off a cliff.

 

[sikkinixx]

Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star claims to have the inside scoop on the cabinet. 28 ministers total (14 men, 14 women), with 5 from Atlantic Canada, 6 from Quebec, 10 from Ontario (6 from the GTA, 1 apiece from Ottawa, Eastern, Southwestern, and Northern Ontario), 1 apiece from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Territories, 3 from British Columbia. Supposedly 1 Sikh (inside track is Navdeep Bains), 2 Aboriginals (Wilson-Raybould and Tootoo), and the article lists a number of veterans and newcomers who are likely not making it in.

Okay, so, my guesses:

5 from Atlantic Canada: Scott Brison, Judy Foote, Dominic LeBlanc, either Sean Casey or Wayne Easter, and a woman from NS or NB; probably Bernadette Jordan.

6 from Quebec: Trudeau himself, Stephane Dion, Marc Garneau, Melanie Joly, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Diane Lebouthillier.

5-6 from GTA: Chrystia Freeland, Bill Morneau, Navdeep Bains, Kirsty Duncan, ?, ?

1 from Ottawa: Andrew Leslie.

1 from Southwestern Ontario: ?

1 from Northern Ontario: Patty Hajdu.

1 from Eastern Ontario: ?

1 from Manitoba: The article says likely Jim Carr, but could also be MaryAnn Mihychuk.

1 from Saskatchewan: Ralph Goodale.

1 from Alberta (this kind of surprised me; I was expecting 2): Amarjeet Sohi or Kent Hehr.

3 from British Columbia: Jody Wilson-Raybould, Joyce Murray, and either Pamela-Goldsmith-Jones or Carla Qualtrough.

1 from the Territories: Hunter Tootoo.

I really do hope he picks who he feels are the best people for the job and not just women/minorities/regional-based for the optics of it.

 

[Stet]

I really do hope he picks who he feels are the best people for the job and not just women/minorities/regional-based for the optics of it.

I'm sure there's a way to do both.

 

[Sean C]

I really do hope he picks who he feels are the best people for the job and not just women/minorities/regional-based for the optics of it.

He has a surfeit of qualified people in every region. Balancing merit against other qualities is as old as cabinet-making itself.

 

[gutter_trash]

why doesn't Ontario just imitate Quebec with their own Hydro?

Quebec rakes in so much money with their own Hydro Quebec, what is so different about Hydro One in Ontario that makes it not work as well as Hydro Quebec?

Ontario GAF explain me

 

[Fuzzy]

why doesn't Ontario just imitate Quebec with their own Hydro?

Quebec rakes in so much money with their own Hydro Quebec, what is so different about Hydro One in Ontario that makes it not work as well as Hydro Quebec?

Ontario GAF explain me

Hydro One makes a lot of money, the Ontario Liberals are just doing this for short term gains at the expense of long term profits.

 

[gutter_trash]

Hydro One makes a lot of money, the Ontario Liberals are just doing this for short term gains at the expense of long term profits.

that is so stupid of them. Don't sell off a cash cow to buy a new car that will end up breaking down

Keep the cash cow alive

 

[Fuzzy]

that is so stupid of them. Don't sell off a cash cow to buy a new car that will end up breaking down

Keep the cash cow alive

This is why having one party (no matter who it is) having absolute power sucks. There will always be stupid people and with no way to stop them we're fucked.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

Part of Wynne's infrastructure plan is GO Train service every 15 minutes on all lines.

That seems like overkill, to say the least.

 

[Fuzzy]

Part of Wynne's infrastructure plan is GO Train service every 15 minutes on all lines.

That seems like overkill, to say the least.

And it makes Tory's SmartTrack "plan" in Toronto completely redundant.

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

And it makes Tory's SmartTrack "plan" in Toronto completely redundant.

They're the same plan.

 

[DopeyFish]

Part of Wynne's infrastructure plan is GO Train service every 15 minutes on all lines.

That seems like overkill, to say the least.

But the go trains will be single deck now and there will be a lot more stops, making it essentially a surface subway..

I really wish go trains would be rolled into the TTC just so they'd turn into static fare, at least within city limits

 

[lupinko]

Ah that's interesting, when I used to live in Toronto, it was always called the Greater Toronto Area and where I lived was Etobicoke.

Now I look at my old address and it just says Toronto. *shrugs*

I haven't been back since 95.

 

[killer rin]

This is why having one party (no matter who it is) having absolute power sucks. There will always be stupid people and with no way to stop them we're fucked.

Whats sad is that while we don't have the one party problem in Ontario, we might as well with how the other parties behave. Seriously, at this point a potted plant could beat the Ontario Liberals... that's how low the expectation of the Liberals are in Ontario.

Seriously, if the PC's were smart they wouldn't make their leader someone who is already drowning in unpopular ideas and controversies. If the NDP had only not screwed themselves over in their one chance at forming government. If both parties only knew how to shut the hell up before they begin speaking about firing 100,000 people a week before the election; then we wouldn't have to deal with all of this corruption.

But the go trains will be single deck now and there will be a lot more stops, making it essentially a surface subway..

I really wish go trains would be rolled into the TTC just so they'd turn into static fare, at least within city limits

http://www.cbc.ca/elections/ontariovotes2014/features/view/compare-party-platforms/

Well, apparently that was the plan of the PC's last election. They wanted to merge all the local transit companies in the Golden Horseshoe into one company... of course though they were going to cancel a bunch of infrastructure investments and invoked Mike Harris in the process.

.

Though, I do find it actually quite funny. If Ontario had only voted in favour of MMP during the failed attempt at a referendum back in the 2000's, we wouldn't even be in this mess in the first place. We would be in a solid Minority situation with the Ontario Liberals having 38% of the seats, the PC's having 31% and the NDP with 23%. We wouldn't be selling off Hydro One. We would have been more pressured to deal with our huge deficit sooner. These current scandals probably wouldn't even be a thing.

 

[Dr.Guru of Peru]

Part of Wynne's infrastructure plan is GO Train service every 15 minutes on all lines.

That seems like overkill, to say the least.

Also, there is no such thing as "too much" public transit in this city. 15 minutes is long overdue. It's too bad its still so damn far away.

 

[mo60]

The chief electoral office is ordering a recount now in one of the ridings that had a shortage of ballots
http://aptn.ca/news/2015/10/30/chie...-riding-that-saw-reports-of-ballot-shortages/

I wonder if this recount will make the ndp candidate lose the seat he won on election day.

 

[Rocky85]

Bob Hepburn of the Toronto Star claims to have the inside scoop on the cabinet. 28 ministers total (14 men, 14 women), with 5 from Atlantic Canada, 6 from Quebec, 10 from Ontario (6 from the GTA, 1 apiece from Ottawa, Eastern, Southwestern, and Northern Ontario), 1 apiece from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Territories, 3 from British Columbia. Supposedly 1 Sikh (inside track is Navdeep Bains), 2 Aboriginals (Wilson-Raybould and Tootoo), and the article lists a number of veterans and newcomers who are likely not making it in.

Okay, so, my guesses:

5 from Atlantic Canada: Scott Brison, Judy Foote, Dominic LeBlanc, either Sean Casey or Wayne Easter, and a woman from NS or NB; probably Bernadette Jordan.

6 from Quebec: Trudeau himself, Stephane Dion, Marc Garneau, Melanie Joly, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Diane Lebouthillier.

5-6 from GTA: Chrystia Freeland, Bill Morneau, Navdeep Bains, Kirsty Duncan, ?, ?

1 from Ottawa: Andrew Leslie.

1 from Southwestern Ontario: ?

1 from Northern Ontario: Patty Hajdu.

1 from Eastern Ontario: ?

1 from Manitoba: The article says likely Jim Carr, but could also be MaryAnn Mihychuk.

1 from Saskatchewan: Ralph Goodale.

1 from Alberta (this kind of surprised me; I was expecting 2): Amarjeet Sohi or Kent Hehr.

3 from British Columbia: Jody Wilson-Raybould, Joyce Murray, and either Pamela-Goldsmith-Jones or Carla Qualtrough.

1 from the Territories: Hunter Tootoo.

Sohi is also sikh. Would make sense for him to take Tim Uppals spot(Minister of Multiculturalism)

 

[Sean C]

Sohi is also sikh. Would make sense for him to take Tim Uppals spot(Minister of Multiculturalism)

In a 28-seat cabinet, that job isn't going to exist as a standalone position.

 

[matthewwhatever]

One more MP is trying to compete in the Interm Leadership race for the Conservatives
http://blogs.canoe.com/davidakin/po...ship-with-sharp-critique-of-election-failure/

Also Rona Ambrose is also trying to run in that race too.
http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/rona-ambrose-to-run-for-conservative-interim-leadership/

I wonder how many conservative MP's will actually for interm leadership by the time it's time to choose an interm leader for the party.

I find it a little strange how many people are running for the leadership. You have eight people running (but only seven candidacies, since Rempel and Lebel are running for a joint leadership role). Not that being Leader of the Opposition doesn't provide a nice little pay bump, but it's still surprising to see so many people putting their names forward. If there were distinctive permanent leadership camps, it might make sense, since then we'd be seeing a leadership war-by-proxy, but this is just lots of people apparently eager for an 18-month raise. Am I missing something?

*snipped stuff about Ontario politics*

And there you have it.

Spoiler

I may be remembering some portion of these events wrong, but the majority is correct

I mostly agree with what you wrote, but I disagree that the last election was the Liberals' to lose. Most polls either had them running neck-and-neck with the PCs, or even a little behind in some cases. A Wynne win was pretty far from a sure thing.

Are we going to make a New Canadian Politics Thread in Off Topic Community?

I have it ready to go -- it'll go up either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning! Right now I have the seat counts and the main people. Can anyone think of anything else worth including?

 

[Azih]

The popular vote share :O

 

[Rocky85]

Heard a pretty terrible rumor at work. That trudeau wants to take away pensions from retirees who live outside canada for more than six months? I couldnt find anything on google though I am on mobile. No way this can be true right??

 

[matthewwhatever]

Heard a pretty terrible rumor at work. That trudeau wants to take away pensions from retirees who live outside canada for more than six months? I couldnt find anything on google though I am on mobile. No way this can be true right??

It predates Trudeau. It's part of the 2011 entry-exit agreement we have with the United States, designed to clamp down on people who are claiming the benefits when they're not supposed to be.

 

[Silexx]

To add to this, any Canadian government would have a hard time taking away pensions because we already have multitudes of international agreements with foreign pension services that allow us mix respective benefits together. (i.e. like someone who has CPP contributions can have part of that transferred to Social Security in the US.)

 

[Tabris]

Can anyone think of anything else worth including?

A recap of everything Harper fucked up?

 

[gutter_trash]

It predates Trudeau. It's part of the 2011 entry-exit agreement we have with the United States, designed to clamp down on people who are claiming the benefits when they're not supposed to be.

IMO, they should let pensioners do whatever they want any without strings attached, they worked all their lives for their pensions, they should be full entitled to the entirety of their pensions.

 

[Silexx]

IMO, they should let pensioners do whatever they want any without strings attached, they worked all their lives for their pensions, they should be full entitled to the entirety of their pensions.

CPP, yes. But not Old Age Security. OAS is based solely on your residency in Canada. You can still collect OAS outside of Canada, but not GIS past six months. You can also be subject to a non-resident tax depending on the country.

 

[Buba Big Guns]

One more MP is trying to compete in the Interm Leadership race for the Conservatives
http://blogs.canoe.com/davidakin/po...ship-with-sharp-critique-of-election-failure/

"Sharp Critique" my ass.

His argument was that the CPC election loss was a communication failure, when in fact people were fed up with all the fucked up shit Harper was trying to do.

These people have their heads in the sand.

 

[Fuzzy]

I find it a little strange how many people are running for the leadership. You have eight people running (but only seven candidacies, since Rempel and Lebel are running for a joint leadership role). Not that being Leader of the Opposition doesn't provide a nice little pay bump, but it's still surprising to see so many people putting their names forward. If there were distinctive permanent leadership camps, it might make sense, since then we'd be seeing a leadership war-by-proxy, but this is just lots of people apparently eager for an 18-month raise. Am I missing something?

Raising their profile in order to be a part of the shadow cabinet and maybe even the cabinet if the CPC wins the next election?

 

[Sean C]

Raising their profile in order to be a part of the shadow cabinet and maybe even the cabinet if the CPC wins the next election?

Pretty much all of these people were already in cabinet, so they'd already have profile in that regard. It can't hurt, of course, to be interim leader, assuming you don't bomb in the job.

 

[gabbo]

A recap of everything Harper fucked up?

Would an OP hold all of that?

 

[matthewwhatever]

One of the Liberals' first acts after taking power is apparently going to be to reinstate the mandatory long form census. The next census is next year, right? Hopefully there's time to get everything together by then!

Raising their profile in order to be a part of the shadow cabinet and maybe even the cabinet if the CPC wins the next election?

Except one of the top criterion for an interim leader is usually a relative lack of ambition -- that is, they get picked because none of the leaders for the permanent job view them as a threat. Plus, as Sean notes, the candidates are all former cabinet ministers, so it's not like being interim leader gives them extra experience.

 

[CitizenVectron]

2 reasons I could see them wanting the job:

1) More money, get to live in Stornoway and be called Official Opposition Leader
2) Sets you up as obvious replacement for the next leader if they bungled the next election against an incumbent Trudeau. Not a sure thing, but possible.

 

[PumpkinSpice]

Adding a link to that Trudeau metre in the new OP might be a good idea.

 

[Layell]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/11/02/liberals-to-restore-mandatory-long-form-census.html

Apparently the only thing they need to do for census restoring is have the cabinet ministers say "we are doing this".

As I understood it they did need to do this quickly in order to get the proper year data out. Glad to hear this is happening right away. Time to see how fast the Harper legacy gets inched back.

 

[gutter_trash]

glad to see the return of the long form census making a come back.

remember the funny news report about a small town being wiped off the map statisically due to the lack of data (dont worry, that town is okay)

 

[Lexxism]

Whoever will create the new thread tomorrow. Please leave the link here. Thank you.

 

[killer rin]

Hey Matthew, are we going to make the new thread in Community? Or are we going to go the route of Off Topic, then we have a Mod move it later after we build up a community?

Spoiler

Either way, can't wait to see the new thead

 

[MMarston]

Probably the last thing this thread will see


Tom Mulcair dancing Hotline Bling

 

[Indicate]

Probably the last thing this thread will see


Tom Mulcair dancing Hotline Bling

LOL

 

[SRG01]

Probably the last thing this thread will see


Tom Mulcair dancing Hotline Bling

Is this actually real?! LOOOOL

 

[Sean C]

Some assorted final predictions for tomorrow (probably wrong, but it's fun to guess):

- Marc Garneau at Foreign Affairs, because he was the critic for that file and it optimally should be given to somebody with some prestige, which Garneau has.

- Marie-Claude Bibeau at International Development; she used to work for CIDA, and she's one of the handful of Quebec Liberal women whose ridings are at all distant from Montreal.

- Jody Wilson-Raybould at Justice & AG; she used to be a crown prosecutor, and with the talk about a gender-balanced cabinet, it will be important to have some of those women in the top-tier jobs, and with the desire to turn over a new page on relations with aboriginal peoples (and the missing/murdered women inquiry in particular), having a First Nations woman at Justice would be a powerful symbol.

- Hunter Tootoo at Aboriginal & Northern Affairs; if you had only one Aboriginal person in cabinet, I think giving them this file would be seen almost as pigeonholing, but with two you avoid that, and so why not put a man who is both Northern and Aboriginal in charge of Aboriginal and Northern affairs?

- Ralph Goodale as Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Treasury Board.

- Scott Brison at Finance.

- Bill Morneau at Industry.

- Chrystia Freeland at International Trade.

- Stephane Dion at Environment, because the next minister will really need to hit the ground running, with the international conference in only a few weeks, and Dion has a lot of experience on the environment specifically and on working with the provinces in general.

- Maryam Monsef at Citizenship & Immigration. Similar to Wilson-Raybould, a high-symbolism pick, replacing Chris Alexander with a former Afghan refugee. This would be a bit riskier, since C&I is going to be an immediate focus of attention and Monsef is on the young side, but, hey, no guts, no glory.

I'm going to be interested to see who gets Agriculture, since, as many commentators have noted, the Liberal caucus is so overwhelmingly urban, as are its major figures.

 

[SRG01]

Some assorted final predictions for tomorrow (probably wrong, but it's fun to guess):

- Marc Garneau at Foreign Affairs, because he was the critic for that file and it optimally should be given to somebody with some prestige, which Garneau has.

- Marie-Claude Bibeau at International Development; she used to work for CIDA, and she's one of the handful of Quebec Liberal women whose ridings are at all distant from Montreal.

- Jody Wilson-Raybould at Justice & AG; she used to be a crown prosecutor, and with the talk about a gender-balanced cabinet, it will be important to have some of those women in the top-tier jobs, and with the desire to turn over a new page on relations with aboriginal peoples (and the missing/murdered women inquiry in particular), having a First Nations woman at Justice would be a powerful symbol.

- Hunter Tootoo at Aboriginal & Northern Affairs; if you had only one Aboriginal person in cabinet, I think giving them this file would be seen almost as pigeonholing, but with two you avoid that, and so why not put a man who is both Northern and Aboriginal in charge of Aboriginal and Northern affairs?

- Ralph Goodale as Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Treasury Board.

- Scott Brison at Finance.

- Bill Morneau at Industry.

- Chrystia Freeland at International Trade.

- Stephane Dion at Environment, because the next minister will really need to hit the ground running, with the international conference in only a few weeks, and Dion has a lot of experience on the environment specifically and on working with the provinces in general.

- Maryam Monsef at Citizenship & Immigration. Similar to Wilson-Raybould, a high-symbolism pick, replacing Chris Alexander with a former Afghan refugee. This would be a bit riskier, since C&I is going to be an immediate focus of attention and Monsef is on the young side, but, hey, no guts, no glory.

I'm going to be interested to see who gets Agriculture, since, as many commentators have noted, the Liberal caucus is so overwhelmingly urban, as are its major figures.

For some reason, I doubt Scott Brison will be Finance. I'd love to be proven wrong though.

 

[Emperor Bohe]

Probably the last thing this thread will see


Tom Mulcair dancing Hotline Bling

This shit made my whole night

 

[matthewwhatever]

Some assorted final predictions for tomorrow (probably wrong, but it's fun to guess):

- Marc Garneau at Foreign Affairs, because he was the critic for that file and it optimally should be given to somebody with some prestige, which Garneau has.

- Marie-Claude Bibeau at International Development; she used to work for CIDA, and she's one of the handful of Quebec Liberal women whose ridings are at all distant from Montreal.

- Jody Wilson-Raybould at Justice & AG; she used to be a crown prosecutor, and with the talk about a gender-balanced cabinet, it will be important to have some of those women in the top-tier jobs, and with the desire to turn over a new page on relations with aboriginal peoples (and the missing/murdered women inquiry in particular), having a First Nations woman at Justice would be a powerful symbol.

- Hunter Tootoo at Aboriginal & Northern Affairs; if you had only one Aboriginal person in cabinet, I think giving them this file would be seen almost as pigeonholing, but with two you avoid that, and so why not put a man who is both Northern and Aboriginal in charge of Aboriginal and Northern affairs?

- Ralph Goodale as Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Treasury Board.

- Scott Brison at Finance.

- Bill Morneau at Industry.

- Chrystia Freeland at International Trade.

- Stephane Dion at Environment, because the next minister will really need to hit the ground running, with the international conference in only a few weeks, and Dion has a lot of experience on the environment specifically and on working with the provinces in general.

- Maryam Monsef at Citizenship & Immigration. Similar to Wilson-Raybould, a high-symbolism pick, replacing Chris Alexander with a former Afghan refugee. This would be a bit riskier, since C&I is going to be an immediate focus of attention and Monsef is on the young side, but, hey, no guts, no glory.

I'm going to be interested to see who gets Agriculture, since, as many commentators have noted, the Liberal caucus is so overwhelmingly urban, as are its major figures.

I agree with most of these. I don't think International Development will be a cabinet portfolio after today, though. I think Freeland has an outside shot at Foreign Affairs, though you're probably right that International Trade is more likely. Also, I'm curious about Defence: Leslie seems like the obvious pick, but he'd apparently be controversial within DND. Maybe Blair gets it instead, and they give Leslie Public Safety?

Anyway, new Canadian PoliGAF thread up as soon as I get to work! Expect it up in an hour or so!

 

[gutter_trash]

watching the CBC last night, Trudeau has a busy month going from
G-20 Summit in Turkey,
APEC summit in Philippines,
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2015 in Malta,
UN Climate Change Conference in Paris,

Justin will start off right away on a international tour and meeting face to face Barack Obama both times in G-20 then APEC.

He will need a solid foreign affairs minister off the bat and a credible environment minister.

Because of this super charged month, I think he will go with Garneau for Foreign Affairs and with Dion as Environment Minister.

IMO, a Foreign Affairs ministers HAS TO BE bilingual mandatory