No Reason for Quebeckers to Whine

But when you elect only 10 government MPs and half of them end up in cabinet, you’ve got nothing to complain about.

Five out of 10 is good. Very good, in fact. Take Ontario: 51 elected Conservatives but only 13 cabinet ministers. Nowhere near as good.

Harper has done the best with what he has. He didn’t have much. The worst ones were kicked back down the ladder.

Jean-Pierre Blackburn ended down on the bottom rung – National Revenue. Not much to do there except open the tax return envelopes and tally up the cheques. Payback for musing about Harper reopening the Constitution.

Josée Verner lost Heritage. That’ll teach her to knock the arts and cut their grants. Nobody on stage crying for her. Worse for Harper. Nobody around Quebec to replace her. Forget Max Bernier. He’s a joke. Steven Blaney is too ADQuiste. “He didn’t have much to choose from,” said Gilles Duceppe.

Public Works Minister Christian Paradis is Harper’s bright new Quebec star, his designated Quebec lieutenant. (Why isn’t it ever a Quebec “general”?)

The Mégantic lawyer (not the outlaw) was also appointed minister responsible for Montreal. That’s because Montreal didn’t elect one single, solitary, living Conservative MP. You get what you vote for in politics.

That’ll be one long commuting trip every morning coming in from Mégantic. . 235 kilometres away.

As Paradis said at his swearing in “So help me God!” It’ll take more than God. Maybe they should get him an airplane. He could fly in to St. Hubert and line up on the parking lot into town like everybody else.

Jean-Pierre Blackburn actually got a second job, sort of. He’ll be minister of state for agriculture. That’s because the minister Gerry Ritz can’t speak a blessed word of French. So Blackburn will be helping out in Quebec. Maybe he can also help farmers in his Jonquière riding bring in their aluminum crops.

Josée Verner got intergovernmental affairs. In the provincial cabinet, that’s a big job, but in Ottawa all that stuff is decided in Harper’s office. She will get to smile a lot and shake hands with provincial premiers. “Pleased to meet you, Josée.”

It’s still a lot better than being bounced out of cabinet.

Verner kept Francophonie, but lost Official Languages, which went to B.C.‘s James Moore, the first immersion class baby ever to make it to the federal cabinet.

Remember those moms who told their kids “Go into immersion and you’ll get a good government job.” Well mom, you can put Moore’s photo up on the kitchen refrigerator.

Harper could have ditched the deadwood instead of merely knocking them down the ladder, and saved us about $10 million. Now he’s got 37 cabinet ministers instead of only 25. Harper must love Big Government.

The sad part is his ministers will still have all their speeches vetted by his office, and won’t speak out on policy unless told what to say. Sometimes all they get to do is stand around Harper in a photo-op.

Still they get $226,500 a year, a chauffeur, a limo and the title “Honourable” in front of their names for the rest of their lives. ”Life has its rewards” as they say at American Express.