Louis XIV, the French Sun King, once remarked that for every vacant office he filled, he created 10 malcontents and one ingrate. Stephen Harper may discover the harsh truth of that statement for himself, as his backbench MPs begin to realize that this is as good as it is likely to get.
The new Cabinet unveiled by the Prime Minister Wednesday was familiar to the point of contempt. Mr. Harper said his main focus was on continuity, with changes limited largely to replacing those ministers who retired or were defeated in the election. The existing deck was shuffled to move John Baird to Foreign Affairs and Tony Clement to Treasury Board, where he will be charged with cutting $4-billion a year from the government’s $80-billion a year direct spending budget.
The necessity of geographic balance meant promotions for two Quebec ministers, Christian Paradis, who becomes Industry Minister, and Denis Lebel, who takes the Transport portfolio, as well as the welcome reintroduction of Maxime Bernier to Small Business and Tourism, and Steven Blaney to Veterans Affairs. Quebecers can hardly bleat – they rejected the Conservatives and still ended up with 80% of the provincial Tory caucus in Cabinet.
British Columbians have more reason to question their representation at the top table, having seen their number drop from six to four ministers.
Ed Fast, the Abbotsford MP first elected in 2006 but relatively faceless since then, was given a huge promotion to become International Trade minister – a move that may give some hope to backbenchers whose happy place is a vision of riding in a government limousine.
The line from the Harper government was this a new ministry that will govern for all Canadians – particularly, it seems, those Canadians who voted en masse for the Conservatives for the first time. The Cabinet included new faces from a range of faiths and ethnicities, including Joe Oliver, a Jewish former investment dealer from Toronto, as the new Natural Resources minister; Tim Uppal from Edmonton as the new Minister of State for Democratic Reform; Alice Wong from Richmond as the new Minister of State for Seniors; and Bal Gosal from Bramalea as the new Minister of State for Sport.
Such blatant pandering is understandable, given the Tories’ electoral success, but it is unlikely to sit well with the legions of Tory MPs (I counted 86) who have been waiting patiently on the backbenches for their chance to shine. Two pale male veterans – Rob Merrifield and Rob Moore – were demoted to free up room for the new appointments.
As one person with inside knowledge of the Tory caucus put it: “I think the issue is now all the egos sitting on the backbenches. The bitching won’t start until the fall – everyone will be too impressed with their new Blackberries and travel points. But wait for it.”
This may, in part, explain why Mr. Bernier is back in Cabinet. Anyone with leadership ambitions and time on their hands could find fertile ground to sow discontent in the coming years.
Mr. Harper admitted he is finding it increasingly difficult to craft a Cabinet, as his caucus grows. It has been an incredibly disciplined group since winning government five years ago – the combination of a tight leash from the Prime Minister’s Office and MPs willingness to sanctify themselves. But the Tories are now in the promised land and disillusionment beckons for those who see themselves as Cabinet material – which is all of them.
If he is to keep his governing coalition intact, Mr. Harper could do worse than spend his down-time reading (or re-reading) Doris Kearns Goodwin’s masterful biography of Abraham Lincoln: Team of Rivals. Lincoln’s political genius, she wrote, stemmed from “the ability to form friendships with men who had previously opposed him; to repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; to assume responsibility for the failure of subordinates; to share credit with ease; and to learn from his mistakes.”
To be sure, the Prime Minister is no Abraham Lincoln. One former Cabinet minister told me he never got to know the man behind the icy exterior. But, having nullified the immediate threat from the opposition parties, Mr. Harper is going to have to spend more time on Cabinet and caucus management, if he wants to avoid creating an enemy within.