Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper and his cabinet will be sworn in in about two hours. No one knows for sure who will be in that cabinet. It’s one of the best-kept secrets in Ottawa — although there sure is plenty of speculation who will be doing what.
Harper’s inner circle has let it be known, however, that his cabinet will be smaller than the last one. So here’s the numbers on Paul Martin’s last cabinet:
- Cabinet size: 39
- Number of women: 9 (23%)
- Regional breakdown:
- Ontario had 15 cabinet seats
- Quebec had 7 plus the Prime Minister for 8 cabinet seats
- British Columbia had 5 cabinet seats
- Atlantic Canada had 6 cabinet seats.
- Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta each had one cabinet seat.
My best guess at this point has the Harper cabinet looking something like this:
- Cabinet size: 25
- Number of women: 5 (20%)
- Regional breakdown:
- Ontario – 8 cabinet seats
- Alberta – 4 ministers plus the Prime Minister for 5 cabinet seats
- Quebec – 4 cabinet seats
- Atlantic Canada – 3 cabinet seats
- British Columbia and Saskatchewan – 2 cabinet seats
http://removeemerson.blogspot.com/ and http://www.electemerson.blogspot.com/ are a couple of blogs begun by Conservative supporters to try and rectify what they see as a betrayal of principle. The schisms begin on day one.