Notley crew to officially take over with smaller cabinet
Posted May 24, 2015 6:57 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Alberta New Democrat Party will officially take the reins as the province’s governing party from the ousted Progressive Conservatives on Sunday afternoon.
Incoming premier Rachel Notley will be sworn in and will name her cabinet, which is set to be the second smallest cabinet in provincial history.
Having a dozen or fewer cabinet members is a stark contrast to the last several cabinets named under Tory governments.
David Taras, a political scientist with Mount Royal University, said he wonders if it is too tall a task for such a small group.
“Government is so much more complex, bureaucracies are so much larger, the issues are so much more immediate that it’s hard to know if the premier and eleven people are going to be enough,” Taras said.
He said the plan might be to go slow and expand the number of cabinet positions in the fall, so Notley can have time to look at the talent she has available to her.
Taras said he expects the cabinet to be Edmonton-centric with some notable MLA’s taking prominent positions, like Brian Mason, David Eggen and Darren Bilous.
As far as the rest of the province is concerned, he expects a high profile spot for former Calgary Alderman Joe Ceci, and cabinet positions given to an MLA from Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat and one from northern Alberta.
