Globe & Mail fact checker on holidays, Jean Charest is forgotten
To think that Steven Chase of The Globe and Mail thinks that the talented James Moore is the youngest person ever to be appointed a federal cabinet minister:
OTTAWA — Should you have trouble concentrating, newly minted federal Heritage Minister and iPod junkie James Moore has just the prescription for you: baroque music.
The 32-year-old British Columbia MP – who’s just made history in becoming Canada’s youngest-ever federal cabinet minister – describes this era of music as though it were vitamins for the mind.
Not to take anything away from Minister Moore, but Mr. Chase seems to have overlooked Quebec Premier Jean Charest, who was first appointed to cabinet by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney at the ripe old age of 28. And it isn’t as though Mr. Charest isn’t right under the nose of the Globe’s Ottawa bureau. Where are the fact checkers (see prior post “Globe & Mail fact checker on holidays this week, PE $ go missing” June 25-07)?
I note that the Saturday print version of the article was already updated online at 9:57 am this morning. Will they fix the piece a second time, or just let it go?
MRM
Ministers of state aren’t full cabinet ministers… they are cabinet ministers’ assistants. I think that’s what they are getting at. If you look, Jean Charest didn’t become a full cabinet minister until the age of 32, when he became Minister of the Environment according to http://www.parl.gc.ca
Maybe you should check your own facts and not try to censor by deleting my comment, eh? Ministers of State aren’t full cabinet ministers. They are cabinet ministers’ assistants. Look it up in Wikipedia since you like using it as your source.
Thanks for these two posts. Not trying to censor anything. We moderate comments and sometimes there is a lag.
Mr. Charest was a Minister of State at 28. He was a member of the Privy Council, but most importantly he attended Cabinet as a Minister. It would not be accurate to say that a Minister of State is an “assistant”.
I agree that he didn’t have a meaningful portfolio until he got Environment, but he was still a Cabinet Minister at age 28, which was the reference the Globe was making.
MRM
So does everyone else squander to much time on the net.