Ottawa

UPDATED AGAIN: Shuffleuffagus v2.0 – It begins!

Scroll down for the latest updates!

To nobody’s surprise (except possibly Stockwell Day), Lawrence Cannon is headed to Foreign Affairs (link courtesy of NNW). This post will be updated as further news leaks out.

UPDATE: It’s a cornocopia of (seemingly) informed speculation over at CanWest! Baird or Prentice (really? Prentice?) to Transport, which will apparently be “central” to the government’s efforts to “avoid a recession” with billions of dollars for infrastructure. Everyone loves bridges and tunnels! And hockey arenas! And wharfs! Oh, and Clement might end up with International Trade, which would be — different; does anyone else have trouble imagining him as anything other than Health Minister? It’s like, his entire political identity at this point.

Jason Kenney may get Citizenship and Immigration – which I totally called earlier this week, by the way, only in my scenario, Peter Kent took over the Canadian Identity portfoliette – and James Moore could be bumped up to Canadian Heritage or Environment. The former would let him keep the Vancouver Olympics too, since Heritage is now not so much about arts and all about sports. (And human rights museums, but y’all have heard that rant more than enough times already, so I’ll spare you the rest.) (Seriously, though – Winnipeg? WINNIPEG? Oh well, at least we’re not going to buy them a football arena too, right? Right? Hello?)

Oh, and Josee Verner gets the Rona Ambrose Memorial Naughty Chair for failing to sell PMO’s culture war in Quebec. I wonder if she’ll get to go to next month’s first ministers’ meeting? Probably not – I’m pretty sure Rona wasn’t invited to the last one.

STILL MORE UPDATEY GOODNESS: L. Ian MacDonald has Baird taking over Transport, which is being spun as a plum assignment because of all that lovely cash to spread around deserving ridings, but sounds more like an attempt to spin it as Not A Demotion for whoever lands there – well, if it’s someone currently on the A-List like Baird or Prentice, anyway.  Then there’s the idea of Peter Van Loan taking over Environment. Pivvle the Pit Bull as Mr. Corner Turning Cap and Trader? Is the PM worried that there may be one or two environmental groups out there that his government hasn’t yet antagonized?

Moving on, Jay Hill as House Leader actually does make some sense, although I still think they’d be better off with Diane Ablonczy, who – as per L. Ian – will get Health. He also has Lynn Yelich headed to Revenue – and Gordon O’Connor replacing Hill as Whip, which seems like an odd pairing – and boldly predicts that Gerry Ritz will be booted from Agriculture, with one of ITQ’s very favourite Conservative MPs, Ted Menzies, as a contender to replace him. (Go Ted!)

BECAUSE WE’RE ALREADY CHATTERING ABOUT IT IN THE COMMENTS UPDATE: Stephen Taylor, on the other hand, is getting a markedly different story on who is going where from his source(s), including  the tantalizing rumour that a Quebec Liberal may Emerson up and cross the floor for a cabinet job. Oooooeeeeoooo. (ITQ suspects this may be mischievous disinfo from the Sun Tzu division of the Conservative Resource Group; if that’s the case, we can only say – well played, sirs!)

THANK GOODNESS FOR CANADIAN PRESS UPDATE: The overhaul will be “sweeping”, Alex Panetta assures us. Well, good. The last one was a bit of a snoozer, although admittedly, it was primarily to deal with that Bernier-shaped hole in the wall at Fort Pearson. Many of the same names show up in the CP piece – most of the big kids staying where they are – Prentice, Flaherty, MacKay, Day – Kenney to Citizenship (CALLED IT! FEELING SMUG! YES, I HAVE WITNESSES! PLEASE IGNORE THIS IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE WRONG!), Baird to Transport, Jay Hill as House Leader (oddly, no mention of Pivvle), Verner to the Room of No Longer Required-ment, Ambrose to HRDC, Clement to Trade, Duncan or Gerald Keddy to Fisheries, Shea to ACOA (sorry, Peter – no more pork gravy for you), Leona Aglukkaq to a newly created northern development secretary of stateship, and her fellow newbies Bob Dechert and Peter Kent to various unspecified junior mint jobs.

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