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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Embattled minister quits

Cabinet shuffle made easier for PM

By: Jordan Press and Teresa Smith

Posted: 07/4/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press Bev Oda�s annual pension will be $701,464 when she reaches age 80. (CP)

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday received some of the room he needs to shuffle his cabinet, losing the embattled Bev Oda and raising the possibility of a younger caucus member receiving her cabinet post.

The international co-operation minister announced her resignation Tuesday in a statement on her website. The resignation takes effect July 31, cementing the expectation that Harper will shuffle the cabinet within about a month.

Harper's office didn't say Tuesday when Oda's replacement will be announced.

It's unknown how significant the shuffle will be, but rumours continue to circulate that some high-profile ministers could be moved to other portfolios. Names that have been mentioned are Defence Minister Peter MacKay, caught up in the F-35 purchase controversy, and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who turned public opinion against his own online surveillance bill by accusing critics of the legislation of being on the side of child pornographers.

Harper could decide to replace Oda with a junior caucus member such as Chris Alexander -- whom experts on Tuesday pegged as a qualified replacement for Oda -- or another woman or a member of a visible minority.

Oda's departure, according to experts and critics, also sends a message to cabinet that ministerial spending which ends up embarrassing the party will not be tolerated.

Oda's lavish spending included limousine rides and a $665-per-night stay in a London hotel where she charged taxpayers for a $16 glass of orange juice.

By resigning, Oda has spared Harper the political embarrassment from having to dump one of his ministers and return her to the backbenches.

"She's doing the honourable thing," said Kathy Brock, an expert on party politics from Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. "It's not something she was innately suited for and she's saving the prime minister the embarrassment of shuffling her out of cabinet."

Despite overseeing the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) for five years -- the longest tenured minister in charge of the international aid agency -- doubling aid to Africa and being quick to pledge Canadian dollars to overseas crises, it was the revelation in April of her expenses in London that proved to be her undoing.

NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus blasted Harper for not dumping Oda after previous spending and political controversies.

"In the end, it was Bev Oda herself who stepped down. The prime minister at no point, in her very troubled career, ever reprimanded her or held her to any standard of account," said Angus.

"It's unfortunate that a woman with her talent ends her career with such a cloud of disgrace hanging over her."

Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett said Oda came across as "genuinely wanting to help," but wasn't able to do so.

"We almost feel sorry for her," said Bennett. "If you talk to people quietly in every department, you find out that decisions are made in the Prime Minister's Office and ministers are just there to implement them."

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation estimated her annual pension will instantly start at $52,183, adding up to $701,464 by the time she reaches the age of 80.

"Bev Oda's lifetime pension should cover about 43,841 glasses of $16 orange juice," said Derek Fildebrandt, the federation's national research director.

Some questions about Oda's spending habits abroad have yet to be resolved. Records show Oda modified the amounts related to expenses on a number of recent trips, but has refused to reveal why those figures were changed.

-- Postmedia News, with files from The Canadian Press

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 4, 2012 A8

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