By Lloyd Mackey

I HAD indicated that there might be some Haiti coverage in this week's OttawaWatch.

As it has turned out, the mainstream media has been saturated with such - including dozens of stories that were faith-based.

If anything, one of the intriguing outcomes of this tragedy has been the uncovering of the fact that so many Canadian and American young people travel to Haiti specifically to live out their faith in a needy setting. And when they do so, they learn much about finding ways, in the name of Jesus, to help quell poverty, disease and oppression.

I would encourage readers to keep watching for these stories and to find particular projects to which to give.

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Meanwhile, here is some quick comment on this week's cabinet shuffle.

True, it is a little more 'fuzzy' in terms of the faith-political interface than the stark realities of Haiti. But it is also true that the government -- and a very constructive opposition -- were fast off the mark in getting Canadians into gear for helping after the quake.

And I submit that might have something to do, in part at least, to faith-based motivation.

As regular readers will know, I try to keep a close eye on politicians who, in one way or another, make their faith a matter of public record. Particularly, I try to keep track of those whose orientation may lean to the kind of Christianity best described as evangelical, reformed or charismatic -- or some combination of all three.

This morning (Tuesday, January 19), I took in the federal cabinet shuffle. In many ways, it was a low-key affair. But there were some shifts in positions held by people who fit the aforementioned faith description. Here is a quick assessment on those moves.

Stockwell Day

This former Canadian Alliance leader has been named to his third cabinet post: president of the Treasury Board. His previous two postings have been, respectively, public safety and international trade.

This new post will likely be his most challenging yet, although less high profile than his other cabinet jobs.

That is because the monitoring activity and attention to fiscal detail in the Treasury Board work is painstaking and unrelenting. Day's flinty eye will be important because, when big stimulus spending takes place, someone has to keep track so that there are no unintended economic overheating consequences.

As noted in this space a couple of weeks ago, Day has proved to be a most competent minister, well-trusted by the prime minister. In public safety, history will show him correct, I believe, in getting Canadian corrections and police mentors connected up with their Afghan counterparts. That action, likely, will rebuff the opposition criticism on what has been referred to as the Afghan detainee issue.

Day also helped pave the way, as international trade minister, for Stephen Harper's successful trip to China late last year. And he did so, it should be noted, by building bridges to the Chinese leadership. Those leaders might have been considered his natural enemies, given that his views on religious freedom would be arguably in marked contrast to theirs.

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Vic Toews

This Manitoba lawyer, who has been both provincial and federal justice minister, may eventually be headed for a judgeship. But the prime minister obviously sees him as an asset to take the public safety post through its next step.

Toews, who melds his Mennonite roots with a seemingly less pacifistic 'tough on crime' approach, will be a realistic arbiter of what will and won't work with regards to such issues as terrorism and corrections -- both international and domestic.

It won't hurt that his original cabinet stint was in justice, where he laid out many of the parameters to this government's approach in that area. It took the more softly-spoken Rob Nicholson to finesse that approach through Parliament. But Toews paved the way.

Diane Ablonczy

Some pundits wonder what Stephen Harper dislikes about this diminutive Albertan former teacher and lawyer - and one of the founders, along with Preston Manning, of the Reform Party.

I would suggest that he likes her just fine, and finds cabinet niches that are particularly applicable at particular points in time. In fact, she is a good demonstration of the prime minister's willingness to move his cabinet members and key aides into the right spots at the right times.

Ablonczy picks up the seniors portfolio from Senate Government Leader Marjory LeBreton, who has been competently handling it 'on the side,' so to speak. Now it will involve the efforts of a full-time minister.

And that is important, given the current and growing pension concerns and other economic uncertainties affecting many seniors. Until recently, these people were known as 'boomers,' because they represented a booming number of babies born after World War II. Ablonczy's sense of detail will be invaluable.

I was reminded of these concerns a couple of years ago, when I learned of a major proposal in Victoria, for a sprawling 'seniors village' on the site of an empty and disused high school. In effect, many of the people -- or their contemporaries -- who went to that high school in the 60s now needed the kind of community service applicable to seniors.

The first portfolio Ablonczy held, likewise, had a sense of timeliness. It is small business, often, that tends to help pull an economy out of a recession. The larger institutions, like ocean liners, take a while to turn around; but a small business entrepreneurial mindset often helps that sector to lead the way.

Rob Moore

Another lawyer, this time from Atlantic Canada, Moore takes over the small business/tourism portfolio from Ablonczy.

The faith part of his outlook comes from the fact that he grew up in a Pentecostal pastor's home, and has, himself, quietly kept the faith.

Unlike the other three mentioned, Moore is at the beginning of his cabinet career, rather than midway or further along. He has been serving as parliamentary secretary to the justice minister.

Watch for more news on him, as time passes.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa, and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006); More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005); and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

January 20/2010