OTTAWA -- Manitoba senior cabinet minister Vic Toews was just sworn in this morning as Canada’s new Public Safety Minister. Toews has been the Treasury Board President since 2007 and was the Justice Minister for a year before that. He is the MP for Provencher, a role he’s held since 2000. Toews, 57, is replacing Ontario MP Peter Van Loan, who is moving to International Trade. In total Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffled 10 of his cabinet ministers. His main front bench ministers are staying put -- Jim Flaherty in finance, John Baird in transport, Tony Clement in Industry, Peter MacKay in Defence and Lawrence Cannon in Foreign Affairs. Manitoba's other cabinet minister, Steven Fletcher, is staying put as the minister of state for democratic reform. Stockwell Day is being tapped to stick handle the upcoming hard times in Treasury Board. The job entails keeping a hold on the country's purse strings, and with a $56 billion deficit to overcome, the government's agenda will include a severe tightening of those purse strings in the months and likely even years to come.

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