Shuffle

McGuinty shuffles the deck:

Hoping to breathe new life into his government after a summer marked by blunders, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty unveiled a cabinet shuffle that elevated two new faces, and had several veterans either demoted or switching chairs.

John Gerretsen lost his position Wednesday as the province’s Environment Minister, and has been moved to Minister of Consumer Services, after the controversial eco-fees program that led to a significant backlash from consumer and retail groups last month. And Rick Bartolucci was shuffled from Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services to Municipal Affairs and Housing after the government faced scrutiny about handing special powers to police during the recent G20 summit in Toronto. Jim Bradley is switching jobs with Mr. Bartolucci.

In addition to shuffling some of his veterans, Mr. McGuinty added two former mayors to the mix.Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray and former Ottawa mayor Bob Chiarelli, who both won Liberal by-elections earlier this year, were awarded posts as Minister of Research and Innovation and Minister of Infrastructure, respectively.

For analysis, check out Radwanski.

This Week in Toronto

Everyone ready for a game of Liberal musical chairs?

As you've probably heard, George Smitherman has left the provincial government to make a run for Mayor of Toronto. The general consensus has that race as a clash between Smitherman and John Tory - I expect my vote will go to Smitherman, but Leaf fans love a perennial loser, so maybe Tory will be able to pull it off.

Regardless, Smitherman's departure opens up Toronto Centre and, no mater how bad things may be going for Dalton McGuinty, that's about as safe as seats come. One of the candidates for the prize Liberal nomination will be former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray, who would add some star power to a Liberal caucus which has lost some big names over the past year. I was at a well-attended Murray campaign event last night - also there was Smitherman who is endorsing Murray.

It appears Sachin Aggarwal won'tbe going for the Toronto Centre nom, but the federal Liberals will be losing some talent, in the form of Rocco Rossi, who has helped dramatically boost party fundraising numbers this year. Yesterday, Rocco announced he would be tossing his hat into the Toronto mayoralty race. The interesting twist here is that Rossi was Tory's campaign manager when Tory came close to defeating David Miller back in 2003. It's hard to say how Rossi will fare - at the very least he should out-tweet the other candidates in the race.

According to Anonymous Senior Liberal Insider Strategists...

...former Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray is strongly considering running for the Liberals in the upcoming St. Paul's by-election, to fill Michael Bryant's seat.

The Toronto Star, in addition to floating Murray's name, also touts Tim Murphy, Helen Burstyn, and a host of other candidates.