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It will be interesting to see how this plays out in practice. One of the constraints on the Cabinet is that Trudeau promised that it would be gender-balanced;
by cperciva 11y ago
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in practice. One of the constraints on the Cabinet is that Trudeau promised that it would be gender-balanced; unfortunately, the pool of MPs from which he was selecting Cabinet members was not (134 men vs. 50 women; the imbalance is even worse if you look at experienced MPs).
There are six major portfolios -- Finance, Treasury Board, Justice, Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Intergovernmental relations -- and of those five of the ministers are men. Then there are 11 portfolios which I'd say are important but fairly self-contained -- things like International Trade, Health, and Fisheries -- and 6/11 of those are held by men. The other 14 posts are what would typically be considered "junior minister" positions, and that's where most of the women ended up. [1]
This gives me a strong impression that some people were brought in as "diversity representatives" and then portfolios were created in order to justify their presence, rather than the portfolios being created because they were deemed important and then the best qualified candidates sought to fill them; it would be nice to think otherwise, but I've learned to be cynical where politics is concerned. Unfortunately, while inviting people to the table has great optics, it doesn't necessarily result in anyone listening to them once they arrive.
[1] You can argue about which portfolios are major vs. minor vs. junior; there's no hard rules here. But I don't think you could find a plausible classification which didn't show a heavy skew towards males filling the most important roles.
- ghshephard 11y agoIf anything, I consider that a positive sign, that Trudeau is focussing on meritocratic rather than purely political concerns. One of the worries about him was that he would bend to political correctness, and make a hash of everything. Well, he still might - but being a bit practical minded is pretty good. And his new Minister of Defense looks pretty Bad Ass. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/harjit-sajjan-badass-canada-defence-minister-1.3304931 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/harjit-sajjan...
- cperciva 11y agoFair enough. I'd prefer to get rid of the "fake" portfolios and simply have "Minister without portfolio" for the members who are added for the purpose of diversity, though.
- Gmo 11y agoYou could also see it as a chance to "train" female junior ministers and will allow them in a couple of years to have a more important portfolio. This is assuming that the current distribution has been based mostly on experience and nothing else, which is probably not the case of course.
- cperciva 11y agoSure. My point is, it's not clear if we have a Minister of Science because Trudeau thinks science is that important, or just because it's a convenient excuse to add someone to Cabinet.
- jackweirdy 11y agoWhy not both?
- loceng 11y agoIn this instance - as long as he's not censoring government scientists or the Minister of Science, it's pretty huge compared to the train wreck we were on. Likewise with the other roles, a good leader/manager will let people shine and support them when they need support.
- serge2k 11y agoI think it's more about appearing more science friendly than Harper.
- ska 11y agoAlternatively, could this particular post could be seen as a signal in contrast to some of the very anti scientific policies of his predecessor ?
- rfrey 11y agoI agree that defaulting to "it's probably just politics" is rational and usually correct. However I'm cheered by what this government thinks is pragmatic politics versus what the previous government thought.
- bertil 11y agoYou are probably not wrong overall (if blunt) but his approach sounds consistent: if women MPs are overall more junior, it makes sense to give them junior ministries first, and try to promote them faster, rather than leapfrog what sounds like a steep learning experience. It’s been tried elsewhere, and the success rate is less than it could be — but that has certainly more to do with how politics changed recently.
- loceng 11y agoI hope they all do an awesome job and grow with their experiences.
- lazyant 11y agoI agree, my MP was nominated to Small Business and Tourism, arguably she has no experience in either whatsoever and being a 2nd generation immigrant woman may have been the deciding factor for her nomination. Still I'll be moderately optimist (see the example of the MP in Quebec who was in Vegas at election time since she 'had no chance' and didn't speak French, apparently she has been very successful and won again) until actions and facts speak.