If media reports hold true and the Prime Minister shuffles his cabinet, Rona Ambrose is for the high jump.
Too bad.
She gamely tried to tackle a portfolio the Prime Minister and his cabinet clearly have no interest in. It isn't that she couldn't sell the Connie administration's environment agenda: they don't have one worth speaking of.
Changing from Rona Ambrose for someone as eloquent as, say Lawrence Cannon, won't improve the chances Canadians will suddenly accept Stephen Harper as some form of Connie David Suzuki. Heck, we didn't buy Mulroney this past week trying to claim he was the greatest environmentalist ever to occupy 24 Sussex.
Nope.
On environmental issues, the Connies still come across like a band of left-over Reaganites trying to persuade us that ketchup is a vegetable.
Reviving Liberal programs the Connies cut, as the Canadian Pess story linked above suggests, won't cut it either. That will look exactly like what it is: a desperate attempt to reposition the Conservatives in an effort to win votes, not to endorse something they actually believe in.
For that, environmental voters will have to look elsewhere like our man Dion.
Closer to home, the Conservative candidates in the next federal election will once again be in a hard spot. In 2004, they had to wage a campaign without support from the local Progressive Conservatives. That seems likely to be the scenario again, what with Premier Danny Williams needing to wage war against 24 Sussex, regardless of who occupies it.
In addition, the incumbents on the northeast Avalon have got their own baggage to carry around. Norm Doyle has been but a few days away from having his name and face added to a milk carton. Fish minister Loyola Hearn has ticked off many of his supporters with his approach of promising one thing before the election and doing something else once in office.
It's not like somebody didn't warn people of that before:
- Hearn on Hibernia shares.
- Hearn on NAFO.
- Hearn on the offshore revenue deal, an issue that still rankles.
- Hearn on custodial management.
- Hearn on tackling overcapacity in the fishery.
- Hearn on custodial management, federal job presence in the province and immigration cases.
In the past, Hearn speculated about retirement but as the fish minister he really won't be able to walk away from running again.
The only question will be the name of his Liberal opponent.
