It's always fun to watch the media get excited about the composition of a new Cabinet. Today, Stephen Harper made headlines by naming the first ever Inuit Cabinet Minister, Leona Aglukkaq, who will take over the health portfolio.
The truth is that this Cabinet isn't too different from the last one. There are some new faces, true, but no huge influx of new talent that could change the dynamic from the previous government.
At any rate, the Cabinet can be the best in the world and still nothing will change until the PMO starts giving Ministers more say in government policy. Ms. Aglukkaq, for instance, may be a very compelling symbol of the progress of Canadian democracy, but she will never be more than a symbol if the PMO treats her like her predecessor Tony Clement.
The Conservatives claim to be decentralizers, so they should start by moving the policy out of the PMO to the ministries where it belongs. But such a thing is not likely to happen because centralizing the policy also allows the PMO to centralize the message, which paid dividends in the last election.
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