Thanks to Friday’s cabinet shuffle, more than half of the entire United Conservative Party caucus in the Alberta legislature is now a member of Premier Danielle Smith’s cabinet.

To be precise, 57.4 per cent of the 47 UCP MLAs now have a cabinet portfolio. When you subtract Speaker Ric McIver, just appointed to replace Washington-bound Nathan Cooper, that rises to 58.7 per cent.

This is not normal and it’s not an indicator of healthy government. There are now 27 cabinet ministers, two of them meaninglessly labelled as associates but in cabinet nevertheless, up from an already disproportionately large group of 25.

Fully four of them make up the junta, for lack of a better word, responsible for managing health care — or, as was argued in my hot take Friday, for dismantling public health care.

Why Smith’s Giant Cabinet Is a Sign of Desperation | The Tyee

Handing out jobs is one way to keep dissident MLAs loyal.

The Tyee (thetyee.ca)

Thanks to Friday’s cabinet shuffle, more than half of the entire United Conservative Party caucus in the Alberta legislature is now a member of Premier Danielle Smith’s cabinet.

To be precise, 57.4 per cent of the 47 UCP MLAs now have a cabinet portfolio. When you subtract Speaker Ric McIver, just appointed to replace Washington-bound Nathan Cooper, that rises to 58.7 per cent.

This is not normal and it’s not an indicator of healthy government. There are now 27 cabinet ministers, two of them meaninglessly labelled as associates but in cabinet nevertheless, up from an already disproportionately large group of 25.

Fully four of them make up the junta, for lack of a better word, responsible for managing health care — or, as was argued in my hot take Friday, for dismantling public health care.

Why Smith’s Giant Cabinet Is a Sign of Desperation | The Tyee

Handing out jobs is one way to keep dissident MLAs loyal.

The Tyee (thetyee.ca)