No, this isn't an ode to the political titan that is Jason Kenney .
Rather, while catching-up on my long-weekend clips, I came across an interesting "I did not know that" piece in Saturday's La Presse.
In the United States, the line of Presidential succession is clearly set out in the Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act. Between those two documents, we know that the Secretary of Veteran Affairs is 17th in line to the Presidency, for example.
Since Stephen Harper doesn't have a deputy prime minister, the question of who would succeed him if a tragedy were to befall the country is less than clear. (And to be clear, I tried to write this so there wouldn't even be a hint of sarcasm - sincerely, none is intended.)
While this may sound like a topic that only Tom Clancy novels and political scientists should care about, given the health scare that Nicolas Sarkozy had a few weeks ago, it is something at the very least worth spending fiveminutes thinking about.
Luckily for us, Stephen Harper has spent some time doing exactly that and according to La Presse, he wrote a letter on October 30, 2008 stating that if he is unable to exercise his duties, the following ministers, in order, are designated:
Lawrence Cannon
Jim Prentice
Chuck Strahl
Peter MacKay
Stockwell Day
Feel free to discuss the list, the meaning of who's on it, who's not on it, what it says about Red Tories versus Reformers, etc.
Also sort of interesting, given the date the letter was written and what happened mere weeks later, is Harper specifically wrote that the approval of the Governor General is required before any of them becomes Prime Minister. This is of course technically true (I think) but still sort of interesting.
No word on where in the line of succession Pierre Poilievre landed. (Yes, sarcasm returned to the blog prior to this sentence.)