Martin builds cabinet with stalwarts, rookies

By ALLISON DUNFIELD
Globe and Mail Update

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced a cabinet Tuesday in a move sought to
achieve a balance between stability and fresh ideas, keeping some senior
ministers while adding new faces as he heads into the fall session as head
of a minority government.

His two most senior ministers, Ralph Goodale and Anne McLellan, will keep
their posts as Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, respectively. He
rewarded one of his most loyal cabinet ministers, former health minister
Pierre Pettigrew, by giving him the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

The Prime Minister also brought in eight newcomers, including naming former
B.C. NDP premier Ujjal Dosanjh the new Health Minister, former hockey great
Ken Dryden as Social Development Minister and giving former high-ranking
Tory Scott Brison, who crossed the floor last year, the Public Works
portfolio.

The new, 39-member cabinet was sworn in at a ceremony at Ottawa's Rideau
Hall Tuesday morning, with Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and husband
John Ralston Saul presiding over the ceremony. In a speech after the
swearing-in ceremony Mr. Martin acknowledged that leading a 135-seat
minority government won't be easy, and that he put the new cabinet together
in recognition of that. Most minorities last an average of 18 months.

"[Canadians] expect all parties in the Parliament to work together in
a spirit of co-operation. They expect concrete results. Given the
composition of the House of Commons, we as a cabinet and as a government
and as a Parliament have a lot of work but I'm quite convinced that as a
representative of the people of this country we will be able to meet that
challenge. "

The Conservatives criticized the makeup of the cabinet, saying it was made
up mostly of Mr. Martin's friends and did not have enough new faces to
provide new energy to the government. "This cabinet is one small step
forward for Paul Martin, a step backwards for Canadians," said John
Reynolds, the party's current House Leader. He was especially critical of
the choice of Mr. Brison for Public Works Minister and Mr. Dosanjh in the
Health portfolio. The fact that Mr. Brison left the Tories after running
for the Conservative leadership to move to the Liberals shows that he
cannot be trusted, Mr. Reynolds said. He said that as a former NDP premier,
Mr. Dosanjh was likely appointed to give the Liberals a way to
"appease the socialists in this country."

The Conservatives will announce their new, 41-member shadow cabinet Thursday.

Jack Layton, NDP Leader, said that Mr. Martin has not done enough to make
the change that Canadians wanted. "There has been little change in
direction in the cabinet that's been proposed," he said, adding that
he was disappointed to see that many of the same people remained in
cabinet.

Mr. Martin took some heat for awarding eight posts to ministers from
Western Canada, including five from British Columbia where it has a total
of eight MPs. The Western Canadian ministers include Mr. Dosanjh, former
public works minister Stephen Owen from British Columbia, who moves to
Western Economic Diversification, former forestry industry executive David
Emerson who was named Industry Minister and Winnipeg's Reg Alcock, who will
stay on as president of the Treasury Board despite some grumblings from
within the party about his performance in that role.

The Prime Minister defended his heavy focus on choosing Western MPs when he
has a total of 15 from Manitoba to British Columbia. "[It's] as it
should be. I mean, Western Canada is very, very important to this
government. So the dynamism of western Canada should be reflected but the
fact is if you look at all of the regions [they] are
well-represented."  Mr. Martin also noted that the new House Leader,
Tony Valeri, hails from Ontario, along with new Revenue Minister John
McCallum and new Defence Minister Bill Graham.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell said later that he likes the strong B.C.
contingent in the federal Liberal government's cabinet.  Mr. Campbell says
the appointment of Mr.Owen as the Minister Responsible for Sport will help
maximize the benefits for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games. Mr.
Campbell says Mr. Owen has a true commitment to sport.

Mr. Martin, meanwhile, was also chastised for reducing the number of women
in cabinet this time around, down to nine from 11 in his last cabinet. A
late addition to the cabinet, announced after the swearing-in ceremony, was
Ethel Blondin-Andrew to the Minister of State for Northern Development. An
application for a vote recount was withdrawn.

Mr. Martin said 33 Liberals elected on June 28 are women, and that women
are serving some of the most important roles in cabinet, including Ms.
McLellan and new government whip Karen Redman, who will work with Mr.
Valeri and the other parties to ensure government bills get passed.

In a press conference after the swearing-in ceremony, both Ms. McLellan and
Mr. Goodale said that they recognized the need to work well with the other
parties. "A minority government is a challenging government in that
one must always seek consensus and a compromise. My goal is to ensure that
all parts of the government are working effectively," Ms. McLellan
said.

Mr. Goodale said he was confident he could work with the other parties in
terms of fiscal policy. "At the bottom line, however, as I look back
at the last election campaign, no political party and no single candidate
that I can think of argued for a deficit. Everybody was arguing for
balanced budgets and for fiscal responsibility. People had different
versions about how they would achieve that. But the bottom line was the
same, that fiscal responsibility was absolutely crucial."

In all, the Prime Minister appointed eight new cabinet ministers. They
include Joe Fontana, named Minister of Labour and Tony Ianno, who becomes
Minister of State for Families and Caregivers.Mr. Martin also created the
new position of Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities), which
went to Ontario MP John Godfrey. Stephan Dion, who served as
intergovernmental affairs minister under former prime minister Jean
Chrtien, was returned to cabinet as Environment Minister. Former MP Raymond
Chan also returns to cabinet as Minister of State for Multiculturalism.

Two long-serving ministers who lost their jobs Tuesday included former
environment minister David Anderson, and Quebec's Denis Coderre, who was
president of the Privy Council.

Jean Lapierre, Mr. Martin's hand-picked Quebec lieutenant, who some said
was responsible for the Liberals' poor showing in that province in the
election, was named to the Transport position, taking over from Mr. Valeri.
Mr. Martin said Quebec will continue to be a priority for the Liberals.
"Denis Coderre will continue to play a very important role in Quebec
and we have a team in place in Quebec that's very strong. ...they will
continue to play a key role at the national level," Mr. Martin said.

Among those retaining their posts were Justice Minister Irwin Cotler,
Fisheries Minster Geoff Regan; James Peterson, International Trade; Judy
Sgro, Citizenship and Immigration Minister; Aileen Carroll, Minister of
International Co-operation and John Efford, Natural Resources.

Mr. Martin also named 28 parliamentary secretaries, who will be sworn in
later Tuesday afternoon. They include Robert Thibault, who was fisheries
minister under Mr. Chretien and who will be parliamentary secretary to the
Health Minister and former solicitor-general Wayne Easter, who becomes
parliamentary secretary to the Agriculture Minister.

Once all of his cabinet and parliamentary secretaries are sworn in, they
will have several months to prepare to face the opposition parties in the
House of Commons. Parliament will not resume until Oct. 4.

Mr. Martin said his major priorities are health care, cities, child care
and aboriginal issues. He will meet with his new cabinet Wednesday morning.
"Above all, Canadians expect us to get things done. We, as
cabinet...have our work cut out for us," Mr. Martin said, adding that
he is confident that the new group will be able to rise to the challenge.


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