Congratulations Brigitte Legault!

Now that I’ve got my thoughts on other matters that happened this week off my chest, I thought I’d focus on some much brighter news that brought a smile to my face and I’m sure that of many others. I’ve never met Brigitte personally, but friends of mine have worked closely with her in the past and every single one of them speaks so highly of her that I’m certain this nomination was long overdue. If you look up Brigitte online you’d find that she’s someone who’s worked hard in the party and is even highly respected by members of other parties. She’s built her way up as President of the Young Liberals of Quebec to being to a campaign co-chair to being VP Francophone of the Liberal Party of Canada and by all accounts done a fantastic job at each step. There's no question she's a rising star. And she’s running in the same riding that I believe Michael Fortier has picked so she’ll be the perfect person to send the unelected minister packing and take this riding back from the Bloc!

I’m always happy to see well-liked and hard-working people like Brigitte be rewarded for their dedication, but I’m also pleased because this is another example of the Liberal Party putting its faith in the brightest youth in the party. We need more talented youth in the House of Commons and while Briggite Legault may be only 28 I’m sure she’ll do an even better job than many members there who are 48 or 68!

A pet issue of mine has also been to encourage more female youth in particular to step forward for party positions and public nominations (and I’ve been working the past few months on an initiative that strives to promote precisely that). We’ve seen many men in their twenties elected to the House of Commons, such as Jean Charest, James Moore and Navdeep Bains, but have any women every been elected as an MP under the age of 30? Even if there has, we need more such bright young minds like Brigitte to come forward and show that they can be a force to be reckoned with!

But if in fact there never has been a female MP under 30, I’m sure I’m far from the only one hoping Brigitte will be the first.

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A Weak Hand on Full Display

What does it say when the two main highlights of Harper's mini-shuffle include promoting the unelected Fortier and officially re-affirming in Foreign Affairs Emerson who could have never been elected as a Conservative? It's a real victory for democracy for sure, but it seems obvious Harper has little faith in his team that was elected in the last election. It's laid out pretty clear when Harper could not find a single person to fill the Secretary of State for Agriculture post and took the unprecedented step (has this ever happened before?) of leaving Christian Paradis in the junior portfolio while also giving him Public Works. Some real front bench strength here that's for sure.

Other thoughts:
- The war on Ontario and the environment continues as Flaherty and Baird stay in place. Good for the Liberals, but very bad for Canada and our reputation.
- James Moore's curse was finally broken. He's done an atrocious job as the Cadman spokesperson, but few can deny that he's not at least as qualified as some of the people who were already in cabinet.
- I know people have said Fortier is qualified for International Trade but shouldn't you only get a promotion in a job if you did well before? Who thinks Fortier was a solid Public Works Minister?
- Gerald Keddy is going to be pretty busy in the fall in the House as Parliamentary Secretary to Fortier. Does Keddy speak French? If not, who answer the French questions? I guess Peter Van Loan answers all the questions anyway...
-Harper has still done nothing to elevate any women in cabinet continuing to show he doesn't care about women's issues or gender equality. Very sad.

All in all the weakest cabinet in history lead by a PM cowering from debating the issues is what Canadians saw on display yesterday and seems to be what they'll be seeing all summer.

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