He's somewhat disappointed, but quite willing to soldier on with a positive attitude, knowing that the party whose banner he carries is now refreshed and ready to govern with a majority mandate in the House of Commons.
Ed Komarnicki learned this past week that he had been dropped from the roll call for parliamentary secretaries, the secondary line of administration, right behind the cabinet ministers in the Conservative government.
The veteran MP said "although not being re-appointed is a bit bruising to the ego, it is also liberating in that it frees me from the responsibilities that go with the position. I look forward to spending more time with constituent issues and in pursuing each new role in the majority government as is assigned to me."
Shortly after electing a majority government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper named 39 of his 165 members in the House to his cabinet, one of the largest on record in Canadian history. Two of the 13 members from Saskatchewan earned a seat at that table, those being Lynne Yelich and Gerry Ritz.
Last week the list of parliamentary secretaries was released, and two more Saskatchewan names appeared on it, with those being Tom Lukiwski of Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre who was named parliamentary secretary to the leader of the House of Commons; and David Anderson from Cypress Hills-Grasslands who was appointed parliamentary secretary to the minister of Natural Resources and the Canadian Wheat Board.
In the previous minority governments Komarnicki first held the position of labour critic, which he assumed in 2004 and then parliamentary secretary to the minister of Citizenship and Immigration in 2006 and to the Ministers of Human Resources and Skills Development and Labour in 2008 and up to last week.
The PM made changes to the appointments of parliamentary secretaries that is allowing new faces and newly elected MPs to experience being part of the daily functioning of government.
"This is part of the new reality," said Komarnicki, "that comes from electing more MPs from new ridings to form a majority government."
He added that some, including himself, had held these positions during some challenging years in a minority government and he viewed these opportunities as providing him with a most extraordinary experience.
Komarnicki told The Mercury in a phone conversation on Monday that although it was disappointing on some fronts, he hoped that as the government's budget and other events rolled out, there might be an opportunity for him to be appointed to a board or ad hoc committee to do some work on a specific file or piece of legislation.
Parliamentary secretaries receive an additional $15,834 per year on top of their regular MP salary of $157,731.
"I will continue to serve to the best of my ability, and we have a number of items to go through now with the budget and items we can move forward with a majority government. We can get things to happen now that we couldn't always get done before," he said.
Komarnicki said that on Thursday the House of Commons will be voting on the selection of a new speaker of the House and he said he will be supporting the candidacy of fellow Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer who was a deputy speaker in the previous Parliament.
He said he also expected that introductions could be forthcoming for for a change in legislation to allow for reform of the Senate, but there were several other items to attend to, especially those associated with the budget that was presented in March and then left in abeyance while the country underwent the election campaign and ensuing election of the majority government.
