Liberals name their critics

Opposition Leader Bill Graham has named his caucus critics. There’s a lot of them: 41 critics and 38 associate critics to watch a cabinet of 26 people. On top of that, there are seven Liberal MPs with caucus officer positions, like Whip or Deputy House Leader. So, in a caucus 101 MPs, 86 Liberals are critics, associate critics or caucus officers.

The full list has some other highlights:

  • Michael Ignatieff is not a critic. He is the associate critic for Human Resources and Skills Development. (Minister is Diane Finley). The critic is Geoff Regan.
  • Ignatieff is the only MP whose name has been bandied about as a possible leadership contender without a critic’s job. Other posssible leadership contenders with a critic’s job (which gives them a higher profile during Question Period) include: Scott Brison, Belinda Stronach, Maurizio Bevilicqua, Denis Coderre, Stephane Dion, John Godfrey and Joe Volpe.
  • Former Prime Minister Paul Martin is not a critic — a move that was widely expected.
  • Ujjal Dossanjh is National Defence Critic (Minister is Gordon O’Connor)
  • Couple of interesting Quebec matchups: Jean Lapierre is critic to Industry Minister Maxime Bernier and Coderre is critic to Minister of Labour Jean-Pierre Blackburn
  • Sue Barnes, who was Irwin Cotler’s parliamentary secretary in the last Parliament, is the Justice Critic (Minister is Vic Toews).
  • Brison will be the critic to Rona Ambrose in Environment.
  • John McCallum is the Finance Critic (Finance Minister is Jim Flaherty)

 

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