In the wake of Monday’s election results, a number of people have been trying to circulate a few petitions calling on Justin Trudeau to appoint Elizabeth May as environment minster. It’s so ridiculous I barely know where to begin. First of all, why would she cross the floor? There is no need for a coalition government, and for her to abandon the Green Party to join the Liberals would be a bit of a repudiation of what she stands for. It also demonstrates a lack of awareness of what it means to be in a cabinet, which means solidarity with the government’s decisions as a whole. If you don’t agree with all of the cabinet’s decisions, you resign, because cabinet solidarity is part of our system of government. With her many strident positions on various policy files, it’s hard, if not impossible, to see May agreeing with the Liberal positions on so many files. Most of all, this call demonstrates a complete inability for people to appreciate the role that the opposition plays in our system of government. It’s vital, because it holds the government to account – and why wouldn’t you want May to be holding the government to account over their environmental policies? Why would it be a lesser job for her to be doing the holding to account? In the romantic notion that people have that everything should somehow be done by consensus, they don’t appreciate that there is a role for accountability when there is disagreement. It doesn’t need to be nasty – which is unfortunately where we’ve wound up in recent years because of the kinds of culture that has been allowed to breed in parliament – but it can be principled and fair, and certainly May is providing that kind of opposition. Trudeau is making other inroads, such as inviting her and other opposition members to the Paris climate summit – former practice that Harper abandoned when he decided that only his ministers should be allowed to attend these kinds of things. Can May play a role in the system? Absolutely, and she does? That doesn’t mean that she needs to be given a seat at the cabinet table. That’s just ridiculous.

Good reads:

• Rob Nicholson is talking about running for interim Conservative leader, because he hasn’t spent enough time on the front bench looking indignant.
• Anger toward Stephen Harper helped fuel the massive increased voter turnout among First Nations.
• Trudeau’s promise to still resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by year-end could be a bit of a problem in terms of timing.
• So, the Canadian Forces’ plan to combat sexual misconduct is going well… *sigh*
• There are questions about how many of the ongoing court battles the incoming Trudeau-led government will keep going with.
• The Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is more hopeful there will be action under a Liberal government.
• Some NDPers aren’t taking their defeat very well.
• Here’s Althia Raj’s election long-read.
• Colby Cosh gives his election post-mortem.

Odds and ends:

A judicial recount has been ordered in Edmonton Mill Woods, where the margin of victory was 79 votes.

Here’s the election retrospective from Trudeau’s official photographer.

Here’s a look at how Catherine McKenna’s campaign in Ottawa Centre not only won her the seat, but also the most donations in the country an highest voter turnout.