The other day Paul Martin became the latest Canadian Prime Minister to engage in the time honored tradition of post-election cabinet shuffling. The normally drab occasion was made newsworthy by the unusual backgrounds of some of the PM's new front bench ministers. The leading figure of course was our own Ujjal Dosanjh, who has managed to make a remarkable political comeback in recent years, rising from the ashes of British Columbia's worst electoral defeat to become the nation's new Health Minister- switching political parties in the process. An added bonus is that Mr. Donsanjh just happens to be Indo-Canadian, and as a result is now one of only two visible minorities in the Martin cabinet.

The other big name was the new environment minister, Stephene Dion, who in his past life was the co-founder of the separatist Bloc Quebecois Party. Mr. Dion has apparently shed his separatist roots, but not his leftist ones, and as a result has been welcomed into the Liberal tent as a front-bencher. Ditto for Scott Brinson, the man who had barely finished running for the leadership of the old PC party before jumping ship and coming out of the closest (for a second time) as a Liberal. Some pundits interpreted these high profile turncoats as proof that the Martin Liberals really are a catch-all coalition of men and women of all ideological stripes. A more likely explanation is that the party remains what it always has been- a quick vehicle in which the politically ambitious can obtain power with record speed.

Aside from demonstrating just how ideologically fickle the Liberals have gotten in recent years, the most significant thing this recent cabinet shuffle did was provide unpleasant reminder of how desperately in need of reform our system of government is. For a Prime Minister who came into office pledging all sorts of parliamentary and democratic tinkerings, it's sad to see that not a single innovative change was implemented on the outdated system of cabinet-making, which has remained virtually unchanged since 1867.

Okay, maybe that's not quite true. One major feature of cabinet has changed: the size. Where as up until the 1950's the cabinet stayed constant at around 12 ministers, today's cabinet has swelled to almost 40. Needless to say, with a crew that size there is bound to be some overlap. In order to ensure all of the PM's political buddies get a job, new ministries are constantly being created. We now have a minister for "international co-operation" a minister for "multiculturalism" a minister for sports, and a minister for La Francaphone (La Francaphone being that club of French-speaking nations that everyone always forgets exists) among others.

In Canada, we still operate under the belief that to run an executive department of government the only qualification you need is a seat in the parliament. Education, experience, knowledge, and even interest in the ministry are all minor concerns to a Prime Minister when making his cabinet. Appointing ministers has become an act of sheer political patronage, much like everything else the Prime Minister does. The same crew core group of Chretien-era decision-makers always stays the same; they simply rotate titles. Bill Graham, the foreign minister, is now the defense minister. Pierre Pettigrew, the trade minister is turn now the new foreign minister. Justice minister Ann McLellan is now the deputy Prime Minister, and so on. Often the ministers don't even know what job they're getting until the night before. The "late night phone call" from the PM has become something of a legend among ruling party MPs. Of course they're probably all too busy waiting by their telephones to contemplate that we take the same approach to choosing a cabinet as most teenage boys take to choosing a prom date.

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it. A quick look at the biographies of some of Martin's cabinet ministers brings to light a few men and women who'd probably have a hard time getting a job in their new field had they been anything other than an MP in Canada's ruling Party. Our new Veteran's Affairs Minister, for example, is not a veteran, nor has she ever served in the military. Her main job experience was being Sheila Copps's secretary. Defense Minister Graham has similarly never served in the military, yet is now in charge of maintaining our troops. Dosanjh, a career lawyer, is not a doctor, has never worked for a hospital a day in his life, and never even held a junior portfolio in the BC health ministry. Yet he's now in charge of the entire country's healthcare system. And then of course we have our new minister of Social Development, Ken Dryden, a man who the government's website proudly proclaims as "one of the best goalies ever to play hockey." Because, you know, catching rubber pucks and national childcare reform have so much in common.

All this being said, maybe we shouldn't get too worked up over the fact that such hilariously unqualified people are running our national ministries. Indeed, their qualifications, or lack thereof, may even be depressingly irrelevant in the modern era. After all, in recent years the real leadership of government departments has slowly slipped from political ministers into the hands of vast array of faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats who make all the real policy decisions behind closed doors. The deputy ministers and their various understudies now react to a new minister not as a new boss, but rather in much the the same way most Canadians react to a new Governor-General: perhaps a week or two of mild interest in the new figurehead, followed by a quick return to business as usual.

Ah well. If conventional wisdom holds true this cabinet will probably be deposed by a non-confidence vote in a few months. Then the whole lovely process can start over.