We have a new government

The newest resident of 24 Sussex Drive is Stephen Harper, Canada's 22nd prime minister. One of the new things Harper is bringing with him is a smaller cabinet.

Harper has 26 ministers, down from 37 in the Liberals' last cabinet.

There is a lot of pressure to form a cabinet when you haven't been in power in 13 years. But Harper has more pressure since he wants to balance his cabinet geographically with fewer people. Pressure from the West will make Harper's job more difficult.

Here are some observations about the new cabinet:

* In a surprise, former Liberal industry minister David Emerson crossed the floor to join Harper's cabinet as international trade minister. In another surprise, Harper named Michael Fortier, the Tory national campaign co-chairman, as minister of public works. Since Fortier is not an MP, he will likely need to seek a seat in a by-election. (UPDATE: Fortier was named to the Senate, not a popular move but not without precedent.)

* Former Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay of Nova Scotia is the new foreign affairs minister. MacKay lost the leadership race to Harper some time back. You might remember MacKay as the fellow who was dating Belinda Stronach before she jumped to join the Liberals. In his role, he will be dealing quite a bit with the United States. He is a more conventional choice than Stockwell Day, who was feared to be taking that job, given that he was the foreign affairs point person for the opposition.

* Stockwell Day becomes public safety minister, in charge of key anti-terrorism agencies, including the RCMP and CSIS. Day is the former leader of the Canadian Alliance. While Day is not handling foreign affairs, he will still deal with the U.S. on anti-terrorism issues.

* The new Tory cabinet has 5 women; the larger Liberal cabinet had 9 women. The regional breakdown for the Conservative cabinet leans a bit to the West with 10 MPs from Western Canada, 8 from Ontario, 5 from Quebec (including Fortier), and 3 from Atlantic Canada.