The toughest job in Stephen Harper's revamped cabinet falls to Christian Paradis. After an uneventful turn at Public Works, Paradis now takes over Natural Resources.
Chantal Hebert has latched onto what is likely to be the main theme of the day in a blog post titled "A Quebec Minister of the Oil Sands," where she points out that Paradis is likely to be firmly in the Bloc's cross-hairs when (if?) Parliament ever resumes.
As politically important as defending Harper's policies toward the oil sands will be for the new minister, the substantially more challenging job will be determining the future of AECL. To sell or not to sell? To negotiate a reasonable deal with Ontario so the province builds new reactors and AECL is worth something in a sale, or to continue not negotiating with the province? Politically, can Paradis communicate any of this to the public in a way that doesn't turn the sale of AECL and the future of nuclear power in Canada into an albatross around the Harper government's neck?
Those dual challenges suddenly make the unknown Paradis (in English Canada, at least) the minister to watch in 2010 in the Harper government.
