Not much for Canadians in Harper’s mini-shuffle: Layton

OTTAWA – New Democrat Leader Jack Layton says a minor cabinet shuffle doesn’t do much to address the most pressing issues facing Canadians – namely an affordability crisis and a shaky economic recovery.

“A few cosmetic tweaks won’t change the fact that we have the same leader and the same finance minister driving our fragile economy in the wrong direction,” said Layton.

“There are 1.5 million Canadians still out of work from the recession. Mr. Harper and Mr. Flaherty have led the country into the biggest deficit in our history. Economists are speculating that in 2011, the U.S. economy will pull ahead of Canada’s. Mr. Harper can window dress all he wants, but it doesn’t change reality.”

New Democrat Deputy Leader Thomas Mulcair says the cabinet shuffle was another missed opportunity for the Harper government to make some much-needed improvements.

“Mr. Harper could have used this opportunity to reduce the size of the Conservative cabinet, or to lower its embarrassing gender gap,” said Mulcair.

“Instead, we have more of the same – including yet another environment minister who will put the best interests of oil lobbyists and polluters well in front of Canadians. With five environment ministers in five years, you can tell how seriously this government takes its obligations to future generations. ”

As Parliament heads into its spring session, Layton says there is a dire need for leadership on the affordability crisis facing many Canadians.

“Household debt is climbing, unemployment continues to hold back recovery, and the cost of living just keeps going up,” said Layton.

“Yet our finance minister ignored early signs of the crisis, and threw out pension reforms that would have helped millions of Canadians retire with dignity. With today’s shuffle, the Prime Minister has failed to give any signal to Canadians that this Conservative Cabinet will clean up their act.”