Sources Say Harper Will Dump Ambrose As Environment Minister In January - Canoe

[hatrack]

OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will shunt aside embattled Environment Minister Rona Ambrose early next month in favour of one of his top lieutenants, sources tell The Canadian Press.

Jim Prentice, Indian affairs minister and head of cabinet's powerful operations committee, is expected to take on the pivotal environment portfolio. He is to be replaced at Indian Affairs by Peter Van Loan, now heading up the Intergovernmental Affairs Department, say government and Conservative party sources.

Ambrose, who was skewered by critics as she struggled to sell a clean-air plan that even Tory insiders concede did not meet heightened expectations, would take Van Loan's place. The three-way switch has emerged as Harper's cleanest option to start 2007 with a fresh focus on the environment and an eye on the next election. No one knows how soon Harper's minority government will fall - by his own hand or under pressure from opposition parties.

EDIT

It didn't help Ambrose that she had to juggle conflicting messages from a micro-managing Prime Minister's Office, says a senior government source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The impression I got was that she didn't do her homework. But I have to offset that by saying it doesn't matter if you've done your homework if someone switches the books first thing the next morning.

EDIT

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2006/12/19/2877770-cp.html

[GliderGuider]

1. I guess the message of the Liberals choosing Stephane Dion as leader got through to him

Ignore the environment, lose the next election.

It will be interesting to see how he spins this about-face, and what substantive policies come out of it.

I hope the Governor Harper dies a slow death in neocon political purgatory.