Why Chambers Stays

December 14, 2006 permalink

The Orangeville Citizen suggests a reason for keeping Mary Anne Chambers in the cabinet - skin color. Our children are being sacrificed to an inept minister for affirmative action. In the article below, we omit sections not relating to Mrs Chambers.

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Queen’s Park
Weakest ministers challenging McGuinty

Columns December 14, 2006, Eric Dowd

Premier Dalton McGuinty now knows for sure who his two weakest ministers are, but it is not certain how much he can do about it.

Children and youth services minister Mary Anne Chambers put herself very much in the running when she provided one of the feeblest defences by a minister on a key issue in memory.

She was asked to explain why some children’s aid societies have failed to help needy children, while wasting millions of dollars on luxuries for their staff.

Chambers replied she could not discuss the failings because they were described in a report by the auditor general that had not been released formally in the legislature and she kept repeating that as if she were announcing which trains were leaving which platforms in a railway station.

But McGuinty’s government every day leaks policies to news media before presenting them in the legislature, hoping to get them reported twice, once when leaked and again when officially announced. No government has leaked more, so it is bizarre it would ask not to discuss the issue to respect the legislature.

Chambers also kept saying that she was proud the McGuinty government eventually would reveal the problem, and when opponents pointed out that it constantly volunteers information on less crucial issues, such as how many eggs the province produces, objected huffily to vulnerable children being compared to eggs.

[omissions relating to Harinder Takhar]

McGuinty might feel that he would like to get rid of both ministers, but he is in a quandary because the other link they have is that both happen to be members of visible minority groups. Chambers came from Jamaica and Takhar from Punjab. To be fair, both also have made considerable marks in life outside politics.

If McGuinty were to drop either, the minorities to which they belong would be offended. They also are the only representatives of visible minorities in his cabinet.

Parties like to have representatives of visible minorities among their elected members and cabinets to show that they have support among them and promote some to their inner circles.

In recent years, being in a visible minority and elected to the legislature has been almost, but not quite, a passport to cabinet.

[omissions relating to other minority ministers]

Source: Orangeville Citizen