The Loneliness of a Middling, Distant Ministry

Peter Kent: our new environment minister, and soon to be the most lonesome man in Ottawa.

The Globe and Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson has sympathy for Peter Kent, who was appointed federal environment minister Tuesday. The position is the “definition of utter loneliness in Stephen Harper’s cabinet,” writes Simpson. Not only does any action on the environment portfolio rankle the ministries of industry, agriculture and fisheries, and natural resources, but the Harper government has given every indication that environmental protection is way down on its list of priorities. Simpson predicts that Kent, a former broadcaster, will be the perfect man to communicate Harper’s pro-environment message while doing little actual work on the file.

While Simpson insinuates Kent’s appointment was cynical, the Financial Post’s Terrence Corcoran thinks it was a stroke of genius. “If Mr. Kent has demonstrated a special talent in his junior foreign affairs portfolio,” he writes, “it’s an ability to hold his cool while the media try to turn some issue into a hot conflict.” Because Kent has the ability to withstand pressure to act on what Corcoran insists is the overblown issue of climate change, “[i]t’s hard to imagine a better choice for Canada’s environment portfolio.” We in The Mark Newsroom figure that someone who had environmental experience or ever expressed any interest in the issue would also have been nice.

Like Corcoran, the National Post’s John Ivison also says Kent’s communication skills will come in handy, but for opposite reasons. Harper’s position on climate change has long been that Canada will only act if the U.S. does, and now our neighbours to the south appear to be doing just that, with the EPA vowing to start enacting harsh regulations against polluters. “[S]uave diplomacy will be needed in spades when [Kent] is forced to explain to motorists and airline passengers why they’ve been hit in the pocket book as a result of new government regulations,” writes Ivison. Possibly, but the idea that the Republican-held House will continue to vote to fund the EPA while it enacts industry-stifling regulations during a recession is a long shot to say the least, and Harper and Kent may yet get a reprieve.