The most delicate decision a premier or prime minister ever makes is crafting his or her first cabinet after an election.
Think it's just a matter of picking the best people for the job? Think again. There are regional considerations - the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley, the Kootenays, the Interior, the Island and the North all need to be represented, whether you have a wealth of qualified MLAs in each area or not. There's also gender balance to consider, as well as ethnic diversity. In a "big tent" party like the Liberals, with social conservatives and small-l liberals jockeying for space, those political leanings have to factor in as well. Finally, room has to be made for the new "star" candidates recruited to the party
It's a bit like juggling chainsaws -no matter how well you do, chances are somebody's going to get hurt. In this case, no matter what decisions are made, there are going to be unhappy people left on the government back benches.
One of those unhappy people today is our own MLA, Joan McIntyre.
After just under a year in cabinet as Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations, McIntyre was unceremoniously dropped from Premier Gordon Campbell's new cabinet on Wednesday in a major shakeup that saw nine new faces added to the executive council - seven of them rookie MLAs elected just over a month ago.
The trend of adding Sea to Sky Corridor MLAs to cabinet and then dropping them appears to be alive and well. Ted Nebbeling lost his Minister of State for the Community Charter appointment in 2004, coincidentally the day after announcing he was one of the first cabinet minister to have married his same-sex partner.
The government denied that Nebbeling's announcement was a factor in the decision to drop him from cabinet.
McIntyre's return to the back benches does not appear to be as dramatic, but just as disappointing. In a caucus of 49 with a cabinet of 24, being in the bottom half is not very satisfying.
That said, it's understandable. Take those factors mentioned earlier into account - specifically, regional balance and ethnic diversity. Campbell's cabinet is already Greater Vancouver-centric, and the North Shore (and yes, our riding counts as a North Shore one as far as Victoria's concerned) doesn't warrant more than one cabinet minister.
Enter Naomi Yamamoto, the first ever Japanese-Canadian elected to the B.C. Legislature, representing North Vancouver-Seymour, who was named to McIntyre's old post at Intergovernmental Affairs on Wednesday.
The silver lining for McIntyre is the amount of new blood in the cabinet. There's plenty of opportunities for green ministers to make mistakes and move on, opening up a new spot for her.
What's more, if Campbell does decide to retire before the next election in 2013, a leadership race means there might be a new premier doing the same juggling act in the next couple of years.
