Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be flanked by a revamped cabinet in the House of Commons next week. The test of whether he has managed to inject new energy into his mid-mandate government will largely rest on the success of his recast.

It has been three months since the summer shuffle; by now it is clear that the new crew was essentially handed the same walking orders as the previous one. The exercise had more to do with addressing some cosmetic needs of the government than with a change in direction.

For instance, in this Parliament most of the opposition’s rising stars are women. The promotion of a number of female MPs at the time of the July shuffle suggests that government strategists wanted to make a glaring gender gap on the Conservative benches less obvious.

But beyond optics, here are three ministers whose performance in new roles will matter to the Conservative election prospects even if their briefs are not central to Wednesday’s throne speech or — possibly — because they are not.

1) Jason Kenney: As immigration minister, Kenney changed the political paradigm that traditionally governed the handling of the file. He implemented more restrictive immigration policies even as he grew his party’s reach within the ranks of new Canadians.

Now the government sorely needs him to work the same magic as minister of employment and social development.

Recent reforms to the Employment Insurance regime have united employers, workers and premiers against the government across Eastern Canada. The handling of the EI file has confirmed the worst fears of the many Atlantic Canadian voters who were initially wary of Stephen Harper’s brand of conservatism. Unless some fences are mended, the region could turn into a Quebec-style Conservative-free zone in the 2015 election.

And then there is the Canada Jobs Grant program, the centrepiece of the last federal budget. It heralds a return to active duty of the federal government on the front of labour training. But it has hit a wall of provincial opposition and most of the premiers are threatening to boycott the government’s signature jobs policy.

Kenney is circling the provincial wagons these days, encouraging the business community to press the provinces to buy into the program. As a last resort the federal government could go it alone. But the provinces have had the lead on labour training for more than a decade and setting up separate infrastructure to implement a stand-alone federal initiative could be a cumbersome and ultimately counterproductive endeavour.

2) Leona Aglukkaq: sometimes a minister’s political success is best measured by what did not happen under her watch. In the case of Aglukkaq’s recent tenure as health minister, the dog that did not bark in the night or, at least, the dog that did not bite was Canadian public opinion as she presided over a major federal disengagement from the medicare front that had most provinces howling in outrage.

As environment minister Aglukkaq would need more than a nice bedside manner to restore her government’s credibility. But as the Harper government prepares for yet another public relations offensive to promote the Alberta oilsands in the U.S. and abroad, having an Inuk woman from the North as environment minister is better politics than to have one who brought the dour demeanour of an undertaker to the issue such as Peter Kent.

3) Rona Ambrose: by spending a day at the Canadian Medical Association annual convention last August, Ambrose managed to make at least one major constituency in the health-care community feel good about her appointment. Yet she did little more than offer a few bromides before sitting in on the discussions.

No incumbent party wants to campaign against the country’s doctors and nurses in a general election. Until further notice there is no indication that Ambrose’s brief extends beyond helping them talk themselves to sleep until the 2015 vote is over.

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Mid-mandate is the time in the life of a government when appeasement tends to become the better part of valour. But it only starts with the same vowel as the word action.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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