Canada's Harper Shuffles Cabinet amid Plunging Polls
Canada's prime minister appointed eight new ministers in a cabinet shuffle Monday, hoping to reanimate a Conservative government sagging in polls after seven years in power.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird will remain at their posts, steering Canada's export-driven economy through global headwinds and shifting its foreign policy toward rising nations in Asia and South America.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a Twitter message that he was "welcoming eight new faces" and was "proud to be naming four new strong, capable women to the ministry."
"This fall (they) will carry our new agenda forward," Harper said.
With two years to go in its first majority mandate, Harper's government is at its lowest polling levels since sweeping to power in 2006.
The governing party currently trails the Liberals, who were relegated in the last election to third-ranked in Parliament after ruling for most of the past century.
"This is really the commencement of something I told all ministers at the beginning of Parliament, that in the course of the mandate I would bring generational change to the ministry," Harper told reporters.
In the weeks prior to the announcement, a half-dozen ministers announced they were stepping down, including Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Environment Minister Peter Kent.
This created openings for "younger members of Parliament ready for new opportunities," said Harper, who also maintained his core team of what he called "steady hands that will continue to deliver strong leadership in key portfolios."
New policies will be unveiled when the House returns in September, but the government's focus will remain on "creating jobs, growth and long-term prosperity," he said.
Both the main opposition New Democrats and the Liberals rapped the cabinet changes as gloss.
"It's like moving around the chairs on the deck of the Titanic," the New Democrats said in a Twitter message.
"Today's cabinet shuffle will not provide Canadians with the real change they want to see," said Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.
"Mr. Harper is clearly satisfied with his government's performance. We are not. We think that the worst record on economic growth since the 1930s is nothing to be happy about."
Prior to taking the oath, Finance Minister Flaherty brushed aside the criticisms and renewed his promise to balance the federal budget in 2015.
He will now be helped by Kerry Lynne Find, who was named minister of national revenue, and Kevin Sorenson, the new minister of state for finance.
Former minister for the Francophonie, Stephen Blaney, replaces Toews as Canada's top anti-terrorism official, while attorney general Rob Nicholson swaps jobs with defense minister Peter MacKay.
MacKay squinted as he tried to read the oath held by the clerk and eventually pulled out his reading glasses.
"Welcome to the old geezers club," Harper quipped as he shook MacKay's hand afterward.
James Moore will take over the industry portfolio and Bernard Valcourt will become minister of aboriginal affairs and northern development.
Both are expected to play vital roles, alongside returning Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, during a period of consolidation in key sectors and intense resource development in the Arctic.
Two of the most powerful women in the cabinet will stay on, with Leona Aglukkaq moving to the environment ministry and Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose taking on Aglukkaq's old job at the health ministry.
They will be joined by former cop Shelly Glover, who was named minister of Canadian heritage and official languages, rising star Michelle Rempel, who becomes minister of state for Western economic diversification, Candice Bergen as minister of state for social development, and Orthopedic surgeon Kellie Leitch as labor minister.
The cabinet increased in size by one to 38.
Source: Agence France Presse
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