Trudeau's new and ever-expanding cabinet

Justin Trudeau's recent cabinet shuffle has raised the expected howls of derision in some quarters, and stifled yawns in others. Very few seem as delighted with it as Trudeau himself seems to be (and, presumably, those who got the nod). Fully three-quarters of Cabinet positions changed hands, and several completely new names (and positions) appeared in the list.

I'm very much in the yawn category. Inserting back-bench MPs no-one has ever heard of into positions no-one knew existed is hardly going to rejuvenate a very tired-looking Liberal government, although it will probably raise the profile of some new, up-and-coming individuals, and pad out their résumés for the future.

But more than anything, for me, it brought home the sheer size of the Cabinet these days. I have always thought of a government Cabinet as composed of 10 or maybe 12 MPs in important and influential positions like Finance Minister, Justice Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister, Environment Minister, etc. (Interestingly, many, although by no means all, of these actually retained their positions.)

But it turns out the Cabinet actually consists of 38 members (39 with the Prime Minister), including positions like Minister of Citizens' Services, Minister Responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for Quebec Regions (that's quite a mouthful, and what does it actually mean?), Minister of National Revenue, Minister of Rural Economic Development, etc.

It could be argued that many of these are mainly symbolic, even that they are cynical gifts to supporters. You could also probably argue that they could be considered proving grounds for future promotions. Even more cynically, you could see it as an inclusive smokescreen for a continued move towards the centralization of power in the Prime Minister's Office.

Either way, 38 is an awful lot of cats to herd. It's hard to believe that it can be very effective as a group. The ranks of equal numbers of men and women makes for a good photo op. But a Cabinet in the traditional sense? Not so much.