Conservative blogger Stephen Taylor breaks the news: Today, Sandra Buckler (left) informed her friends and colleagues that she’ll be leaving the Prime Minister’s office as Director of Communications.... Her skills impressed Stephen Harper and the Prime-Minister-elect hired her on as his Comms boss. When she took the job of communications director to Harper in March of 2006, few members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery knew who she was and almost all gave her a few months -- tops -- before Harper would fire her, as he had done to William Stairs (the comms director who got him through the election successfully), or Geoff Norquay before him (technically quit but the Grewal affair may have exhausted him) or Jim Armour before him.

"You’re a gadget geek but you’re trying to be better about being a resource hog. You’re juggling world-changing conferences, phone calls to rally voters, hikes to save the rainforest.

I couldn't but help recall, as I stood around the entrance to Rideau Hall today, what David Emerson said on the evening of Jan. 23, 2006 as it became clear that the Liberal government in which he was a minister was clearly about to lose: ""We have got to look at this as Ground Zero for rebuilding a stronger, more vibrant, healthier, winning Liberal Party," Emerson hoarsely shouted.... Ironically, he may have become Harper's dream minister, a reliable policy-problem solver who, among other things, chairs two powerful cabinet committees, one on Afghanistan and another on economic affairs.

That's about the all the Green Party needed to know to be first off the mark with this tough question for the new minister: Christian Paradis’ appointment raises new concerns over asbestos in public buildings, Greens OTTAWA – The Green Party is expressing concern today over the appointment of Christian Paradis to the Public Works portfolio. Mr. Paradis has made comments supporting asbestos use and has previously served as President of the Asbestos Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Secretary of the Asbestos Chapter of the Management Club of Canada.... “The Green Party has long called for an asbestos ban in Canada, safe removal of asbestos from existing buildings and an end to mining and export with a just transition strategy for workers.

The reason is pretty simple, says Desrosiers: Mexico is low labour cost and Canada is now the highest labour cost jurisdiction in the world (at least in our unionized plants). Mexico wages are in the $4.50 per hour range and in response to the difficulties experienced by their OEM producers the Mexican unions have agreed to two tier wages with new workers starting at $2.00 per hour.... Now this isn't quite fair since this includes costs for retirees and benefits costs which are NOT included in the Mexico hourly rate mentioned above but needless to say the gap between Canada and Mexico labour is massive.

Merrill Lynch's David Wolf looks at recent consumer and business confidence surveys and says things don't look good: Confidence measures have turned lower in both the US and in Canada. It was reported yesterday that US consumer confidence dropped to its lowest level in 15 years in June, with 6-month expectations at their worst since the mid-1960s [It was the fifth-lowest reading ever - Akin].... And today, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business released its latest survey of small companies, the "CFIB Business Barometer index".

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's micro-shuffle today involved David Emerson, Michael Fortier, Christian Paradis, and James Moore. It is Harper's fourth cabinet configuration. Here's some numbers on the current set-up: Positions: Prime Minister: 1 Ministers: 26 Secretarys of State: 5 Gender: Men: 25 Women: 6 Stability: There are nine ministers who have the same jobs they had from Harper's original cabinet of February, 2006: Harper (PM), Blackburn (Labour), Thompson (Veterans Affairs), Lunn (Natural Resources), Clement (Health), Flaherty (Finance), Hearn (Fisheries), Day (Public Safety), Cannon (Transport).

OK, reading what I already wrote, OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will appoint "new members of the Ministerial team" Wednesday morning, in a widely expected fine-tuning of his cabinet triggered by the resignation last month of former Foreign Affairs minister Maxime Bernier. The new ministers will be sworn in at Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor General, at 11 a.m. Christian Paradis, a rookie MP from Quebec who is the Secretary of State for Agriculture, is the likely candidate to get the job of International Trade minister, leaving the incumbent, David Emerson, free to focus on the Foreign Affairs portfolio, a job handed to him on an interim basis in the wake of Bernier's resignation...

A PMO source says Prime Minister Harper will halve David Emerson's workload -- he is both Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of International Trade (as well as carrying the regional portfolios of the 2010 Olympics and Pacific Gateway) -- before Canada Day.... In the third and final installment in that magazine's June issue, he has this MP's-eye view of the rumour and speculation the press here have been involved in recently on this issue: It’s not clear which is psychologically worse: getting bounced from Cabinet or being passed over for a position.... Grown men and women, accomplished and respected in their fields before coming to Ottawa, are reduced to nervous, insecure children when the rumours start flying about a Cabinet shuffle.

I'm on the record that it will be a shuffle of precisely one: Rookie MP Christian Paradis to get a big bump up to International Trade before the end of the week. Others here in Ottawa tell me that briefing books have been prepared over in Human Resources.... If he's moving, that's a big shuffle and I'd tend to believe what the PM said last week about big shuffles.