On cabinetry (Part I)

Needless to say, the prospect of the first ever federal cabinet ministers from the NDP is one to look forward to. But the question of who should be included and in what roles looks to be an interesting one - and there's a case to be made that any of the obvious frontrunners might be best off not actually seeking a cabinet position. I'll limit this post to what seem to me to be the three sure things for inclusion within a coalition cabinet, then follow up with some discussion about the further possibilities later on.

Starting at the top, it's virtually certain that Jack Layton will end up in cabinet in a relatively high-ranking role. But purely from a party-building standpoint, I'd think one of the smartest strategic plays the NDP could pursue would be to keep Layton out of the cabinet.

After all, as a party leader, he's the lone NDP MP who can be assured of press coverage whether or not he's in a ministerial position. So the incremental gain in profile from having Layton in cabinet would be less than that acquired from having another MP at the cabinet table with Layton still holding the party leader's profile.

Moreover, a cabinet role risks narrowing Layton's public image. To the extent Layton comes to be associated with specific policies within a single portfolio, it may require extra work to put together an election campaign which once again presents him as prime ministerial.

That said, there are strong reasons for including Layton as well - not the least of which is that he's better placed than anybody to broker multi-party agreement for government policies. And of course there shouldn't be much doubt that Layton would be a strong performer in whatever role he takes on.

The other apparent gimme is Thomas Mulcair. Again, there shouldn't be much doubt about his ability to handle any role he gets put into - and both he and the party would presumably love to see him get more national face time.

But having pointed out the upside of having NDP members like Mulcair able to make inroads into new territory from their current seats, I'd see at least some risk that the time and effort required to run a ministry would reduce Mulcair's availability for party-building. And the cross-incentives with the Libs may be worth watching, as they'd presumably be happy to make sure Mulcair is away from Montreal and unavailable to represent the NDP as frequently as possible.

While she hasn't been mentioned as quite as much of a sure think, I'd think the third lock would be Linda Duncan, despite her not matching the previous governing experience held by Layton and Mulcair (and sharing Mulcair's difficulty in being the main focus for building NDP support in her region).

After all, Duncan is the coalition's only option for an Alberta MP within the cabinet - meaning that there would need to be some awfully compelling reason not to include her. And since she instead seems to be extremely well suited to handle a cabinet role, she would figure to be included.