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There are three outstanding changes in the recently repaired — following the decline into minority — federal Liberal cabinet. The first has to do with Chrystia Freeland — now plenipotentiary, right hand of the king, the human Swiss Army knife of the Trudeau cabinet. Then there is the creation of the enigmatic (more below) Minister of Middle Class Prosperity (Mona Fortier), the purpose of which is yet beyond the ken of the most ardent clairvoyant. And finally, to my mind, the most startling move, Catherine McKenna, alarm siren for the imminent ecopocalypse, to Minister of Infrastructure, a portfolio with ramping up carbon emissions tethered to its DNA.

I’ve felt from the first that tacking “and Climate Change” to the Environment portfolio was a trifle brazen. The climate of the world, even the weather if you like, is not something even the most bustling minister can be in charge of.

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In the infancy of humanity, the Greeks and the Norse may have been comfortable with the notion of gods who could summon the winds, harness the thunderbolt, call up the sea, and generally command Nature in everything from tempest to halcyon calm. When the Greeks themselves wanted some change in the forecast it came with a price. Iphigenia (lovely name) was put to the blade by her warrior father to earn a favourable wind for his fleet.