Don Reacts to Harper's Cabinet Shuffle

Toews moves to Public Safety
Stockwell Day to take over as Treasury Board head

By: Mia Rabson
Winnipeg Free Press, 20 January 2010

OTTAWA — Manitoba senior federal cabinet minister Vic Toews is giving up penny-pinching to battle terrorism and crime.

The Conservative MP from Provencher was sworn in as the minister of public safety Tuesday, putting him back on familiar ground after spending the last three years in relative cabinet obscurity as the president of the Treasury Board.

His longtime friend and campaign manager, Don Plett, now a Conservative senator, said he was "thrilled" for Toews, noting it works well with Toews' interests and skills.

"It's a natural fit for Minister Toews," Plett said. "He's passionate, clearly, about the safety of Canadians, about border security."
In a written statement, Toews said he was "honoured" to stay in cabinet and move to the new role.
"I look forward to applying my previous experience in this exciting new role," he said.

Toews is a lawyer by education and worked as a Crown attorney and government lawyer before being elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1995, handling a number of portfolios, including attorney general when the Filmon Tories were in power. He made the jump to federal politics in 2000 as the MP for Provencher. He was the justice minister for a year in 2006 and was moved to Treasury Board in 2007.

Toews' new duties run the gamut from national security and anti-terrorism policies to crime prevention, overseeing the RCMP, federal prisons and emergency management of natural disasters. With the attempted terrorist bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner fresh on people's minds, and the new rules for airplane security still in the works, including full-body scanners, Toews' hands will be full just with aviation security alone.
Toews' move was seen as somewhat of a promotion, at least in profile, particularly as border security and crime prevention are key elements of the Harper agenda and will not get sidelined, even in tough fiscal times.

Toews takes on the role just as Harper has handed out orders to conduct a strategic review of the country's public safety policies with a view of identifying critical gaps in air-travel security, critical infrastructure protection and foreign intelligence gathering. Toews replaces Ontario MP Peter Van Loan in Public Safety, as part of a small cabinet shuffle made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The shuffle left most of Harper's front-bench ministers in place, including Finance (Jim Flaherty), Defence (Peter MacKay), Industry (Tony Clement) and Infrastructure/Transportation (John Baird).

Toews is being replaced by Stockwell Day, who has surprised some by going from a punchline politician during his days as leader of the Canadian Alliance to one of the most capable and well-regarded members of Harper's cabinet.

Harper praised Day Tuesday while giving him responsibility for the office that controls the government's purse strings at a time when slaying the $56-billion deficit is the government's priority.

"I'm assigning this task to one of the most senior members of the cabinet, a former provincial treasurer who has distinguished himself in every portfolio he has held," Harper said.

Ontario MP Lisa Raitt appeared to be punished for missteps last year that included leaving sensitive documents at a television studio and being caught bad-mouthing her cabinet colleagues on tape. Raitt was dumped from Natural Resources into Labour. But Rona Ambrose, the Alberta MP dropped into the low-profile Labour portfolio in 2007 after a difficult time in Environment, was back into prominence, promoted to Public Works.
Manitoba junior cabinet minister Steven Fletcher stays put as minister of state for democratic reform.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the moving of ministers from one job to another is inconsequential because Harper runs the government like a one-man show and his ministers are just his puppets.

NDP public safety critic Don Davies said he is keeping an open mind about Toews, but said he fears Toews comes into the job with a reputation for being a "my way or the highway" kind of person, which isn't in keeping with the delicate mix of interests involved in public security.

"Mr. Toews has a reputation for being relatively bull-headed," said Davies. "I'm hoping he won't take that approach."

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