Sunday, January 01, 2006
National Unity Question
Is it my memory acting up, or can't a PM name senators to the cabinet? Everyone seems to assume that a Harper government wouldn't have any Quebec representation. There are three Conservative senators and three independents in Quebec. I know it's not much, but if Senators are a possible cabinet officers, then Harper may even have enough candidates to match the vote he's likely to get in Quebec.
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3 comments:
Actually, there isn't any restriction on who a Prime Minister can name to Cabinet. He can appoint an unelected citizen if he likes. In fact, it has happened before, though only when the candidate is running in a by-election for a seat as well. But I would LOVE for there to be a tradition started of appointing a few members of Cabinet who are not Senators or MPs. There are many, many qualified people out there that would never run for office, which currently precludes them from Cabinet - though only by tradition.
Yes the PM can. I always thought PM the PM should have named Romeo Dallaire the Minister of Defence.
Non-Members can be appointed to Cabinet, including senators. However, they usually run in a by-election shortly thereafter because of the constitutional convention of ministerial responsibility. An unelected minister could not sit in the House or participate in many of its functions (e.g. Question Period). Arguably this violates the convention because it makes it difficult for a member of the government to account to the House.
Furthermore, this creates bad optics, without even getting into the whole issue of whether it's democratic or not.
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