Steve likes to surround himself with good friends – 39 of them.

THIRTY-NINE CABINET MINISTERS in the Harper Government. That ties them for the largest Cabinet in Canadian history with, uh, another Con Cabinet… Hmmmm…. I thought “conservative” implied some sorta “fiscal restraint” thing or “small government” thing.

Guess not.

Now, I’m not one to bitch about having too many politicians or about their salaries being too high. I happen to think that you have to pay well to get quality talent.

Um. OK, Maybe that isn’t working out so well.

ANYWAYS….

Paying for those extra 10 Cabinet Ministers (compared to the mean average number of Ministers in the Chretien Cabinets (for example – see below)) is setting us back some extra dough. Not much, I grant. But isn’t this the government that promised fiscal restraint and not the uncontrolled spending promised by the opposition alliance?

I guess that only applies to the Public Service that Tony is going to Tweet about slashing and burning.

While I normally (OK, never) agree with folks like these, I have to say that they are correct to point out that the Cons are not exactly setting that “belt-tightening” example that they want the Public Service to buy into. The size of this Cabinet is an obvious tactic to keep the various regions happy than any type of operational need. The Politics of Pork.

I did up this little graphy thing to compare the mean average size of Cabinets since Trudeau (Part I):

Illustrative, eh?

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