Roundup: Baird on the way out

Posted on by

The big news is that John Baird is about to resign as minister, with the notion that he won’t run again in the next election for whatever reason, though it is suggested he feels the time is right to move over to the private sector, and the way things operate these days is that if you don’t wan to run again, then you’re no longer in cabinet. There hasn’t been any whispering of any scandal, and he doesn’t have a family to “spend more time with,” so the notion that he feels the time is right to make the transition to the private sector is certainly plausible. This after former Australian PM Kevin Rudd was just in town to try and recruit Baird to help him reform a number of UN agencies (though from what I’ve heard about Rudd, Baird not wanting to work with him may be completely understandable). I have no idea who Harper will name as the new foreign affairs minister in Baird’s place, though Jason Kenney is certainly a good possibility. (After all, there is a good tradition of leaders sticking their rivals in foreign affairs in order to keep them out of the country). In the interim, though, Ed Fast is taking the job on an interim basis, which makes sense as he has been doing the diplomatic work on the trade file. It certainly keeps things exciting. Paul Wells puts Baird’s time in Foreign Affairs into some context, which shows why this is a real loss for the government.

Good reads:

  • Major media outlets are wondering whether they’re going to send reporters to cover the leaders’ tours given the escalating costs and reduced access.
  • Aaron Wherry writes about the looming vote to on a bill to restore the long-form census.
  • The search for information on public servant illness and negotiations on the new short-term disability plan shows that there are some 14.7 million sick days banked (not that they would all get used).
  • Veterans groups are already getting a sinking feeling about the new minister, while opposition critics are unhappy he tabled a report at 1830  on a Friday and then started tweeting contents they hadn’t seen yet.
  • Muslim organisations are concerned that the PM appeared to single out mosques in his speech on the anti-terror bill on Friday, and Mulcair is trying to capitalise on it.
  • Lindsay Tedds takes apart the NDP’s Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance tax proposal.

Odds and ends:

It sounds like the investigation into the harassment allegations against the two suspended Liberal MPs will be completed by the end of the month.

The federal NDP is trying to recruit former provincial party leader Howard Hampton to run for them in Kenora in the next election.