Cabinet hopefuls on 'pins and needles'

As Premier Alison Redford announces her cabinet this morning, she will walk a fine line of including fellow Tories bested in the Tory leadership race and MLAs with experience running government, while still living up to her promise of party renewal and change, say political scientists.

"She needs to give us a real cabinet shuffle," said the University of Lethbridge's Peter McCormick. "She's got to deliver on that change."

But while campaigning to lead Alberta's PC party, Redford set up another expectation: that her cabinet ministers will have more than a cursory knowledge of their portfolios.

"I am a details person, and I want my ministers to be details people, and I want them to be thinkers," Redford said in an interview with the Herald while campaigning in Calgary.

"I don't want people sitting around the table who can't all contribute to the conversation," she said. "That's one of the reasons Albertans have said that they're disappointed with some of what the PC party has done - I think we have an awful lot of people who have very senior political positions and don't actually understand the issues."

"Alberta is a pretty important place and it's pretty complicated. And that's OK," she said. "But we need smart people in government."

Rumours abounded Tuesday about who would and wouldn't be in a cabinet - many Tory MLAs said they did not know whether they would make it into her inner circle.

"There's a lot of people on pins and needles," said Ray Danyluk, the Lac La Biche-St. Paul MLA who supported Doug Horner in the leadership race, but picked Redford as his second choice.

McCormick said Horner's appointment as deputy premier, announced last week, gives Redford some instant rural cred as she prepares for an election in the new year. And like all past provincial leaders, Redford will be looking to ensure her cabinet will balance rural and urban, north and south, men and women, and Alberta's cultural mix.

But there are big questions about whether Redford will extend an olive branch to cabinet ministers such as Ron Liepert, an old acquaintance who helped her in her attempt to enter federal politics in 2004, but who has already made a point of saying he will not support her call for a public inquiry into alleged problems in the health-care system.

There are the same question marks about what will happen to Gary Mar, the perceived frontrunner in the leadership race, who Redford managed to beat on the second ballot. Although she has said she would welcome him in cabinet, Mar's only public message of the last nine days was a tweet thanking his supporters.

Other leadership rivals such as Ted Morton - who has represented the small-c conservative side of the party but was eliminated in the first vote of the leadership race - and Doug Griffiths are also possible cabinet contenders.

Art Johnston, who was the only MLA to support Redford in her leadership bid until after the first vote, said Tuesday evening he had no idea whether he would receive a cabinet post.

Redford's minimal support from caucus during the leadership race frees her from many of the demands on her loyalty new leaders often face. Late on Tuesday, some outgoing cabinet ministers had already got the call that they didn't make the cut.

"I don't think I'm there," said Transportation Minister Luke Ouellette, who added he's now debating whether he will run in the next election. "Everybody has to do a little soul searching now and then, and I may have to do a little bit of that before I say for sure."

McCormick said selecting a cabinet is one of the most difficult jobs a leader faces. "No matter what you do, you leave more people angry or disappointed than you make happy," McCormick said.

Redford has also likely studied the two most recent examples of first-time cabinet selections: Ralph Klein's picks after winning the Tory leadership in 1992, and Stelmach's first cabinet in December 2006.

Klein stacked his cabinet with fiscal hawks and rural stalwarts - including Steve West, Stockwell Day and Pat Nelson - who helped him usher in a decade of dramatic government cutbacks and fiscal restraint.

Stelmach's first cabinet saw Calgary MLAs such as Mar knocked out, and a rush of MLAs from northeastern Alberta - Stelmach's home turf - brought in. Only two members of his 19-person cabinet were women, and none were visible minorities.

Following heavy criticism for his rural-heavy choices, and byelection defeat for the Tories in CalgaryElbow, Stelmach revamped his cabinet in June 2007 with a nod to women and Calgarians.

"Both Klein and Stelmach gave us new cabinets that said what kind of premier they wanted to be," McCormick said.

"And Klein's took, and worked for him. Stelmach's didn't."

kcryderman@calgaryherald.com