Shuffling the seats
The House is back and so too the new seating chart and all the new dynamics once things get going.
As Keith Boag has already written in this blog, Bob Rae and Michael Ignatieff are seated next to one another.
Rosemary Barton
So are another couple of former leadership candidates for the Liberal party, Martha Hall Findlay and Gerard Kennedy.
You may also be interested to know that Justin Trudeau, a new star Liberal MP is in the very back row.
Just to keep you on your toes, the NDP now sits to the Speaker's left. Well, most of the party's MPs. Seven of them sit to the right, including leader Jack Layton's wife and the MP for the Toronto riding of Trinity-Spadina, Olivia Chow.
As for the Conservatives, they take up slightly more space.
Some of their new MPs, who are also new ministers, have gotten seats of prominence: see Lisa Raitt, the new Minister of Natural Resources, sitting behind Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty.
And here's an interesting tidbit: Jim Prentice sits to the left of the Prime Minister. His left-hand man if you will.
There have been questions about whether Prentice was demoted in this latest cabinet: I say, look to his front row seat.
So of course now you're wondering how did this seating chart get decided?
Well, it's not a seat lottery. Nor first come, first served.
Instead the seating plan is negotiated between party whips and then Parliament's clerk is informed.
The seating chart will change again a little after the Speaker is elected today.
Still, I'm gonna hold on to my seating chart until I get used to things.
Rosemary Barton
About the Authors
- Rosemary Barton started her television career reporting from Quebec City where she covered the ins and outs of Quebec politics. She moved to the CBC Parliamentary Bureau in 2007. She also stood on the side of road awaiting U.S. President Barack Obama's motorcade for hours in the cold. When she finally spotted him, all of Canada heard her shriek, "I saw him!"
- Alison Crawford worked in Fredericton, Calgary and Winnipeg before returning to her hometown to work in the CBC parliamentary bureau. Her beats include the RCMP, justice, public safety and the Liberals. Alison credits her investigative skills as well as a national etiquette column and coverage of a ferret Christmas party, with having prepared her for covering national politics.
- Andrew Davidson is a producer for the CBC politics page in Toronto. He joined CBCNews.ca's national desk in 2006 and was the lead news writer for the website's 2008 federal election coverage.
- Chris Hall is the National Affairs Editor for CBC News. He's been a member of the CBC Parliamentary Bureau since 1998. That adds up to 11 budgets, four elections, three prime ministers and too many confidence votes to count. Chris started his career in print before moving to the CBC in 1992. Since then, he's worked in Toronto, Halifax and St. John's, as well as Ottawa.
- Leslie MacKinnon Leslie's been working in news and current affairs since newsrooms used teletype, televison was shot on film and radio tape was edited with a razor blade. She saw through The Journal's long run on CBC-TV, and since then has worked in Halifax, Toronto and Ottawa in the CBC's various permutations. Right now, she's a TV news reporter in the political bureau, and likes certain parts of Ottawa - the canal, the Hill - a lot.
- Janyce McGregor has been a television producer in the CBC's Parliamentary Bureau since 2001. She started her career working for Studio 2 on TVOntario. In 2005 her then-doctoral student husband persuaded her to follow him to the U.K., where she worked for BBC World Service Radio in London. Janyce is originally a farm girl from southwestern Ontario. Her most important job title is "Norah's Mom."
- Chris Rands has been a member of the Parliamentary bureau since 2001. He started at Toronto's AM Radio giant CFRB before moving to CBC's National Radio News in 1996. Chris has worked in Toronto, Moncton, Sudbury, Regina, Washington and St John's. Every time Chris walks up to the Peace Tower, he wants to throw his hat in the air like Mary Tyler Moore.
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