Undiplomatic

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has moved quickly to fill the gap in his Cabinet left by the abrupt departure of Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird -- and he's tapped my own MP, Rob Nicholson, for Baird's job. Nicholson moves over from the Defence Department.

I've spoken very briefly with Nicholson just the once, while waiting in the checkout line at a supermarket. He seems as lot more suave than the abrasive Baird, but he's not the perfect replacement.  He doesn't speak French, which has always been a sine qua non for the post in the past, what with French being both the traditional language of diplomacy and one of Canada's official languages.  His unilingualism has prompted Quebec Premier Couillard to express his disappointment at Harper's choice.

Still, Nicholson's role will not be to indulge in any serious diplomacy, but rather to shout slogans fed to him by Harper's sinister backroom cabal. It probably doesn't matter what language he does that in.

Meanwhile, in a further sign that the Tory re-election effort may be running into trouble, one of the party's MPs, Eve Adams, defected to the Liberals on Monday. Ms Adams seems to be, shall we say, a bit high-maintenance, and Justin Trudeau may come to regret taking her on board. However, she joins an ever-expanding group of current Tory MPs who have hastened to make themselves unavailable for re-election this year. It's hardly a vote of confidence in Harper's ability to win a fourth term in office.