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Canada's Next Finance Minister


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Who's it going to be?

Lawrence Martin has an article in the Globe and Mail today about the NDP needing someone who is Finance Minister material now that they are positioned to form a government. He notes that many in the current caucus don't have the credentials to be finance minister, I'm sure many would argue differently, but I tend to agree. Tom Mulcair is a fairly centrist leader and I would imagine he wants to make sure he has someone with solid credentials and a clean background who won't spook the business community. Peggy Nash, Nathan Cullen and Linda McQuaig just don't cut it.

Martin also mentions that the Liberals have recruited Bill Morneau, who has been dubbed Trudeau's Finance Minister. He mentions that they have a few other options within their current caucus; Scott Brison, Ralph Goodale, John McCallum and Chrystia Freeland.

I always felt that Joe Oliver was a temporary Finance Minister and that he would be replaced if the Conservative's were re-elected. Win or lose, 2015 will most likely be Harper's last election so I always figured his post-election cabinet would see potential successors go into more prominent roles. However, with the loss of so many ministers there may not be a suitable replacement for Oliver. I could have seen James Moore move into the Finance post after his time as Industry Minister, a major economic portfolio, but he's leaving. Peter McKay and John Baird were of course possibilities. Jason Kenney could move into the role but his reputation isn't as good as it once was. Lisa Raitt has been a solid performer but I don't believe she speaks French. Tony Clement? I'm not sure if they've recruited any high profile candidates who could take on such a job.

So thoughts? It's still possible that either party could form government and with the economy having issues more attention may be paid to the parties economic teams.

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The Prime Minister can choose an MP or a senator from outside his party and in the absolute worst case scenario, Can even choose from outside. There is no law that says that a cabinet minister must necessarily be a sitting MP or senator, just that he won't get to vote on legislation, that's all. A technocratically-minded Prime Minister could be tenoted to do that if he thought it was the best decision.

Edited by Second-class Canadian
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The Prime Minister can choose an Mo or a senator from outside his party and in the absolute worst case scenario, Can even choose from outside. There is no law that says that a cabinet minister must necessarily be a sitting MP or senator, just that he won't get to vote on legislation, that's all. A technocratically-minded Prime Minister could be tenoted to do that if he thought it was the best decision.

I'm well aware.

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Jim Flaherty was a lawyer, so a background in economics or business is obviously not necessary... although, he might be a bad example, since his policies were terrible fiscal policies for Canada and ran up the debt and deficit in a huge way.

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Jim Flaherty was a lawyer, so a background in economics or business is obviously not necessary... although, he might be a bad example, since his policies were terrible fiscal policies for Canada and ran up the debt and deficit in a huge way.

Jim Flaherty had held several cabinet portfolios in Ontario, including the finance portfolio.

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I'm not sure who the Conservatives will select as the next Finance Minister.

It will be a interesting choice for Harper to make.

If people are tired of the conservative, I'd hate to see them after 4 years of the NDP running Canada. They will be begging to have Harper back.

Edited by Freddy
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I don't give rat's asse who becomes the next finance minister. It won't matter if they don't address our national debt of a trillion dollars.The There is no mention of it by any of the parties so they will continue to add more debt to buy votes and add to our debt problem. The financial world may be at the beginning of collapse as I write. The Hang Sang is down 1000 points and the Nikkei is down over 500 as I write. The derivative world is about to blow up. Watch the BOND markets!

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This is only hypothetical, but imagine if Parliament needed a simple majority to increase revenue (e.g. raise taxes, fines, fees, etc.) or reduce expenditure, but a two thirds majority to either reduce revenue or increase expenditure.

This would also force parties to limit spending increases to those areas on which they can build a broad concensus. Of course the idea could be tweeted a bit, but good in principle I think.

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Lets hope they dot get that opportunity. The current one doesn't seem to comprehend the term recession.

Damn him for letting the price of oil fall so much! No Liberal would ever allow that to happen! And if Trudeau had been PM he'd be such good friends with Obama that the Americans would have slashed their production to keep the prices high!

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Who's it going to be?

Lawrence Martin has an article in the Globe and Mail today about the NDP needing someone who is Finance Minister material now that they are positioned to form a government. He notes that many in the current caucus don't have the credentials to be finance minister, I'm sure many would argue differently, but I tend to agree. Tom Mulcair is a fairly centrist leader and I would imagine he wants to make sure he has someone with solid credentials and a clean background who won't spook the business community. Peggy Nash, Nathan Cullen and Linda McQuaig just don't cut it.

Lawrence Martin is a shill/hired-gun for the federal Liberal Party.

http://www.amazon.ca/Chretien-Will-Win-Lawrence-Martin/dp/1895555752

Canada's next federal finance minister?

My only thought is why he wrote such a dumb article and why the G&M published it. I reckon the G&M published it because of loyalty/stupidity and Martin wrote it because, as Krugman has noted, we live in the age of derp.

IOW, some federal Liberals just can't believe that the game is over.

Edited by August1991
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I tend to agree with August here. What sorts of credentials does one need, exactly? Many of our finance ministers, including Flaherty and Martin, have been lawyers. Ralph Goodale had legal training and was basically a career politician. Guy Caron, currently in the NDP caucus, was mentioned - he is a trained economist with professional experience. Erin Weir is another economist who will run for the party. Why doesn't Peggy Nash cut it?

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I tend to agree with August here. What sorts of credentials does one need, exactly? Many of our finance ministers, including Flaherty and Martin, have been lawyers. Ralph Goodale had legal training and was basically a career politician. Guy Caron, currently in the NDP caucus, was mentioned - he is a trained economist with professional experience. Erin Weir is another economist who will run for the party. Why doesn't Peggy Nash cut it?

Paul Martin had a career outside of politics running a large company. Goodale moved his way up through the federal cabinet so he had experience running departments. Flaherty did the same thing in Ontario before becoming that province's finance minister.

While it's obviously not a necessity it'd be nice for a finance minister to have run some sort of large organization.

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