Come to think of it, I can't name three
January 30, 2008
Rick Mercer's post today presented an interesting challenge:
You could take a hundred bucks, you could stand on a any street corner in Canada, offer people five bucks if they can name three cabinet ministers off the top of their head – double their money if they can name the minister of health. At the end of the day you'd still have enough money for dinner and a movie.
When I first saw it I thought, "I can do that!" I'm up on current events, I listen to CBC radio every morning and evening, I glance at the newspaper (my Post-doc work which involved reading 11 papers a day for 6 months killed any desire I have to read the paper). But guess what, I can't do it.
I'm rather ashamed really. Wait, I can do it... (It was really bothering me).
Tony Clement (Health, I think)
Stockwell Day (Security something or other or something like that)
Jim Flaherty (Finance Minister)
Weirdly, I have that guy, the one from Nova Scotia in my head. The one who dated Belinda Stronach...He's a cabinet minister, but for the life of me I can't think of his name. Sure it would make four and I'm being a keener, but it's bugging me.
Let me go Google and see if I'm right.
I'll be back...
***
(5 minutes later)
Okay I'm back. I went to this site (the first one that comes up when I google "parliament of Canada cabinet ministers"). It doesn't work. Did Rick Mercer break the server? Or is Stephen Harper up to something?
This one does work.
Peter McKay is the guy I couldn't remember and he's Minister of Defense.
Stockwell Day is Minister of Public Safety
I got Jim Flaherty right (all those years in Mike Harris' fucked up Ontario make him hard to forget)
And woohoo for me, Tony Clement is the Minister of Health. (It's not good for Canada as a whole, but I'm feeling good about my political awareness).
So where's my 15 bucks?