Dalton McGuinty’s out of the cabinet, obviously. Phil McNeely isn’t running again, he says.
Bob Chiarelli is widely considered a competent minister, but he’s also had the portfolios he’s had because he’s a reliable McGuinty ally — the two have been close practically since the beginning of McGuinty’s career. He’s running again, he says, but his Ottawa West-Nepean riding has to be one you’d consider vulnerable, with its history of swinging between red and blue and John Baird’s machine available to the Tories. Chiarelli beat Randall Denley once in such conditions and he can certainly do it again, but I wouldn’t call it a given.
Which makes a Chiarelli cabinet post a tough call. Maintaining him in a senior position gives him profile, which is good for him as an MPP, but it’s not what you do if your mission is to renew your party.
Ditto Madeleine Meilleur, though her Ottawa-Vanier seat is much safer.
Premier-designate Kathleen Wynne does have a free hand when it comes to naming ministers here, for the simple reason that no Ottawa MPPs backed her. They all sided with Sandra Pupatello (except for McGuinty and Ottawa Centre’s Yasir Naqvi, who stayed neutral because as party president he oversaw the race). None of them can expect anything except for what appears to make the most sense to the new boss.
If renewal is the mission, that means Naqvi has to be in Wynne’s cabinet. There’s no other move to make in Ottawa.
Which is probably something along the lines of dropping Meilleur from the cabinet and demoting Chiarelli to a mid-ranking portfolio from his current senior place, while promoting Naqvi to something with a bit of flash but not overwhelming responsibility (until he’s shown he can handle it). Training, Colleges and Universities, like that — have him tour the province and make announcements, deal with a bunch of major institutions, but don’t put him in a hotseat like Health or Education. The difference being that Naqvi would be the political minister for the city, not Chiarelli.
And hope for a new hotshot to take up the Liberal banner in Ottawa South, serving as the “new” Naqvi while Naqvi himself moves up.
