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On top of that, Mr. Baird is the regional minister for the National Capital Region, wielding enormous clout over organizations like the National Capital Commission.

It’s addictive and I can’t fathom another job that might be half as absorbing. And why go now, with less than nine months until the next election?

Sources close to the minister said he is not leaving for any particular job but has decided the time is right to move into the private sector, at the age of 45 and after 20 years of public service.

I suspect he may be the only Conservative who thinks the timing is right. If the move was purely of his own volition, he must have concluded he couldn’t win the new Ottawa seat he was planning to run in — in which case, why not pull the ripcord and find a good job while you still have some influence?

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Could he have been shown the door? There have been stories about him misusing government hospitality in the past. CTV reported that Mr. Baird and six of his friends stayed for free at the historic Macdonald House, the official residence of the Canadian High Commissioner in London, for a week — an account for which the Foreign Affairs minister has still not forgiven the news organization.

That story is not unique. If more explosive revelations were coming, even the prospect of jettisoning a Foreign Affairs minister in the run up to an election might appear to be reasonable damage control on the part of the prime minister.

But for now that’s all speculation. All we do know is that the hard-driving, hard-living minister has taken his walk in the snow and decided he’s done enough mingling with world leaders for now.