Following up on last night's post, one would have to figure that any chance of Gary Doer looking to take any major new steps in his last months as premier would be ruled out by his expected appointment as U.S. ambassador. But it'll definitely be worth watching what happens once he actually takes up that post.
From what I can tell, while the Harper government has sought the occasional "bipartisan" cover through individuals who shared his (see e.g. the Manley panel on Afghanistan), Doer's appointment would make for the first time that a prominent figure from another party has been offered a position where some of his personal views might differ significantly from those of the Cons. Which means that this may be the ultimate litmus test as to whether Harper is capable of allowing even the most qualified and distinguished of public servants to apply some of their own values and ideas, or whether he'll limit Doer to doing nothing more than putting his name on the same old message.
Unfortunately, I don't see a lot of reason for optimism - and indeed find it a bit curious that Doer would have enough hope of being allowed to do anything useful to even want the appointment. But time will tell whether what looks to be a poor attempt to deflect attention from Harper's latest bout of Senate patronage will actually lead to some cracks in the Cons' wall of insularity.
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