The McGuinty Cabinet Shuffle means nothing.

I've always found the 'cabinet shuffle' as a response to political trouble somewhat insulting. Such shuffles rarely change anything about the government - it is the equivalent of slapping a fake mustache on and pretending to be someone else. That these maneuvers change anyone's mind in the least speaks poorly of the intelligence of those individuals.

In the case of Dalton McGuinty's recent shuffle it is doubly insulting. It insults the intelligence of voters like most cabinet shuffles but it also trivializes the secret suspension of the Charter during the G20 (real or fictional) perpetrated by this government. It symbolically says that human and civil rights aren't something Ontarians care a great deal about and that with a little smoke and mirrors we'll forget. All of this while the police continue to harass anyone brave enough to make a complaint regarding the G20.

While the McGuinty government was, for a time, a welcome reprieve from the Harris conservatives, whose policies continue to damage Toronto, McGuinty and his people have become just as corrupt and self serving as the government he replaced.

Many misinformed people still believe that the police acted correctly during the G20. This is perpetuated, in part, by politicians and the media repeatedly talking about violence at the G20. The truth is the only violence at the G20 was committed by the police. The black bloc engaged in vandalism, not violence. From the protester's side there was no violence at the G20.

Despite the support of the uninformed and those who are genuinely opposed to civil and human rights the actions of the McGuinty Government will cost them dearly in the next election. There is a block of voters who fluctuate between the Liberals and the NDP or Greens. There are not a huge number of them but they are very important and the Liberals know it. If they fail to scare a significant number of these voters away from other parties - a defeat the Tories at all costs call - the Liberals cannot form a majority. It is these voters that McGuinty has alienated and most of them are too smart to be terribly impressed by a cabinet shuffle unless it includes shuffling Mr. McGuinty out of the leaders chair.