No cabinet shuffle, prorogation until mid-term: Harper

CALGARY – Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he doesn’t foresee any major changes in his government until midway through its majority mandate.

Speaking on an Alberta radio show Thursday, Harper ruled out both a major cabinet shuffle and prorogation of the House of Commons until then.

Prorogation is when the legislature “re-sets” itself with a new throne speech and new bills.

“To be honest, I thought about doing that, but some time ago I made a decision that I probably wouldn’t do it. I didn’t see any reason to do it right now. We’ve still got a number of pieces of legislation we do want to pass,” Harper told host Dave Rutherford, whose show is broadcast provincewide on CHQR and CHED.

“I think what I am more likely to do … is probably in mid-term – we will probably have a new session mid-term.”

Harper said the performance of cabinet ministers will be assessed halfway through his government’s mandate and that’s when any big changes will be made.

“We’ll take a look at how everybody is performing and make some major changes at that point,” he said. “But I think between now and then let’s keep everybody focused on the job we got elected to do.”

Harper’s Conservatives won a majority in May 2011 and the next election is tentatively set for October 2015. If those timelines hold, the halfway point would be August of next year.