The Cormac MacSweeney Blog - 660News Calgary

Yay! Everyone throw on your dancing shoes and some early Elvis hits, Harper is doing the cabinet shuffle.

Ok maybe I missed the mark on that one….oh I got it! Grab your hammer and plywood, Harper is building a new cabinet.

What’s that you say? OH! A cabinet shuffle is about politics? I just figured it was about something else because people actually care a little bit this time.

The last cabinet shuffle Harper had I had been swarmed with comments from friends and associates like:

“who the #*%$ cares?”

“nothing ever changes in politics, they are all liars”

“so….?”

Obviously I wasn’t talking to my friends who are in politics or political junkies. None the less there are new people in the Conservative cabinet, more women, and a few changes.

Well if you care or not….here is the list of Harper’s 38 member cabinet.

Prime Minister — Stephen Harper.
Minister of Justice; Attorney General of Canada — Robert Nicholson.
Minister of National Revenue — Jean-Pierre Blackburn.
Minister of Veterans Affairs — Gregory Thompson.
Leader of the Government in the Senate — Marjory LeBreton.
Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development — Chuck Strahl.
Minister of Defence — Peter MacKay.
Minister of International Trade — Stockwell Day.
President of Treasury Board — Vic Toews.
Minister of Labour — Rona Ambrose.
Minister of Human Resources — Diane Finley.
Minister of International Co-operation — Bev Oda.
Minister of the Environment — Jim Prentice.
Minister of Transport — John Baird.
Minister of Foreign Affairs — Lawrence Cannon.
Minister of Industry — Tony Clement.
Minister of Finance — Jim Flaherty.
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and for La Francophonie — Josee Verner.
Government House leader — Jay Hill.
Minister of Public Safety — Peter Van Loan.
Minister of Agriculture and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board — Gerry Ritz.
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration — Jason Kenney.
Minister of Public Works — Christian Paradis.
Minister of Canadian Heritage — James Moore.
Minister of Health — Leana Aglukkaq.
Minister of Natural Resources — Lisa Raitt.
Minister of Fisheries and Oceans — Gail Shea.
Minister of state (Sport) — Gary Lunn.
Minister of state and Chief Government Whip — Gordon O’Connor.
Minister of state (Status of Women) — Helena Guergis.
Minister of state (Small Business and Tourism) — Diane Ablonczy.
Minister of state (Transport) — Rob Merrifield.
Minister of state (Western Economic Diversification) — Lynne Yelich.
Minister of state (Democratic Reform) — Steven Fletcher.
Minister of state (Science and Technology) — Garry Goodyear.
Minister of state (Economic development for Quebec) — Denis Lebel.
Minister of state (Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency) — Keith Ashfield.
Minister of state of Foreign Affairs (Americas) — Peter Kent.

So tonight I’m going to see Celine Dion in concert.

I know, I know, many of you don’t like the Francophone starlet, but my fiance is a huge fan so I’m biting the bullet and heading up to Edmonton with her.

Of course we didn’t go about this the easy way. First we had no clue the tickets were on sale and decided to give ticketmaster a call and ask. Apparently this concert went on sale almost a year before the actual date.

So the only seats left weren’t next to each other…or even in the same section. That means we’re not sitting together which kind of sucks considering I’m not the Celine fan….but hey I love the girl that does and that’s all that matters.

Then (we had the tickets printed at Southcentre mall) last week I ask my wonderful bride to be where those little pieces of paper are. Surprise, surprise she lost them.

I called ticketmaster yesterday to get them re-printed, because I’m a procrastinator, and find out the concert we booked our tickets for is not Saturday like we had thought but for tonight.

So now we have no one to leave our dog with in Calgary and are stressing out. I believe our friends in Stettler have agreed to take the pooch for a night while we scramble up to Edmonton. This means our 3 hour trip to the capital has turned into a 4-4 and a half hour trip with a detour.

Luckily for us I get off work at noon and she is done at 2pm today. I’ll be honest it will be hell trying to make the trek…but I don’t feel like losing money on Celine Dion.

If you’ve ever taken a drive down 1st St. SE (otherwise known as MacLeod Trail) you no doubt have seen the lanky alien looking naked statues which apparently are called “Family of Man.”

My story this morning revolved around a controversy about these aluminium nudes and where they may be moving to.

It can get a little confusing so I’ll try and break it all down in this little rant.

The statues have been standing in the same spot for 41 years just outside the Calgary Board of Education building. Even though the CBE does not own the statues (they were a gift to the people of Calgary after the 67 Expo in Montreal) the board would like to have them come along in their move to their new headquarters along 12th Ave. SW. But Alderman John Mar isn’t so hot on that idea telling the Sun the city shouldn’t fund the move to a CBE location. The Downtown Association has a few ideas about where the metallic naked people should go. They want the statues to stay in the core, possibly in Olympic Plaza or in front of City Hall.

Obviously there are many sides to this story…but that’s not what I’m writing about. What makes me raise an eyebrow is that I actually had to go out and cover a story about naked statues. I’ve covered many stories in my life but this one about where naked metal bodies are going…is a first.

Well it’s all over, and what’s really changed?

Not much.

The Conservatives moved up by 16 seats from the dissolution of Parliament, the Liberals went down 19 seats, the Bloc Quebecois skyrocketed higher by two seats and the NDP gained seven MPs.

As you can see below, I came close with my prediction for this election. If I do the math and take away the differences, I get at least 281 seats correct in my lucky guess. If you divide that by 308 then you get a percentage of 91 per cent accuracy.

Not bad for my first try.

All my good guessing aside, many Calgarians are asking what was the point of this election? It’s a good question to ask considering $300-million worth of our tax-dollars have been spent on this election at a time many are worried about the economy.

Do you think this election was worth the third *minority* in a row? Or do you think that $300-million could have been better spent on investments in our economy, or on environmental initiatives or infrastructure needs?

Okay … that’s it … for me it’s all over.

The debates are over and the leaders get back to the campaign trail. According to the polls (if you believe them) Liberal Leader Stephane Dion won the French debate and Conservative Leader … and Prime Minister might I add … Stephen Harper won the English debate.

What does this tell us? Only the fact that the top two leaders in our country are better at arguing in their native tongues.

Well I’m going to do something today that I have never tried before but thought I’d take a shot anyway.

I am going to make a prediciton in this election. I am going to try and guess the outcome.

Before I do I want you to let you know that this is completely unscientific and the only method I’m using is my own opinion with what I’ve seen going on.

To remind you … there are 308 seats in our country.

So here is my prediction.

The Conservatives: 134 ……. a gain of 10 seats

The Liberals: 89 ….. a loss of 14 seats

The New Democrats: 37 ……. a gain of 8 seats

Bloc Quebecois: 47 …….. a loss of 4 seats

Independent (Green Party…who wouldn’t have enough seats to be recognized as an official party in the House of Commons) : 1

So I am predicting another Conservative minority but a stronger one than the last government.

I guess we’ll see how my guessing game goes on October 14th.