It’s difficult to decide whose face is less recognizable than the original, reality star Heidi Montag’s or the Ontario cabinet’s. As a Toronto Star editorial this week pointed out, just nine months ago Ontario’s inner sanctum at Queen’s Park featured the likes of Michael Bryant, David Caplan, George Smitherman, and Jim Watson.
Of the new, or newly-promoted, faces the one that stands out is Brad Duguid, a 47-year-old former city councilor from Scarborough. He has a good deal more experience that people give him credit for, or that he had the opportunity to demonstrate in his prior Aboriginal Affairs portfolio. Before being elected in 1994 to city council and in 2003 to the provincial Legislature, Duguid worked behind the scenes at the municipal, provincial and federal levels. Among other jobs, he served as executive assistant to Frank Faubert and MPs Catherine Callbeck and Derek Lee. Duguid is personable, energetic, intelligent and focused. I think he will surprise a lot of people. “I’ve given him a big job,” Premier Dalton McGuinty told reporters this week. “I’m confident he can get it done.”
New names in Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet include former War Child Canada president Eric Hoskins (the doctor and former ‘star candidate’ in a by-election to fill Bryant’s midtown Toronto seat, who is now Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), Hamilton’s Sophia Aggelonitis (the new Consumer Minister who represents a key city where the Liberals are always under fire from the NDP), Cork, Ireland-born Linda Jeffrey (Minister of Natural Resources) of Brampton, and Huron-Bruce’s Carol Mitchell, a veteran municipal politician named Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Of that group, most eyes will be on Hoskins to determine if he has the so-called “royal jelly.” More help is on the way from former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray, widely expected to sweep the Feb. 4 by-election in Smitherman’s former downtown Toronto riding. And here’s hoping the very able David Caplan also returns to cabinet soon. He’s too valuable to be on the sidelines.
