First Gay Canadian Cabinet Minister Sworn In  

(Ottawa) Out of the closet, into the cabinet.

It's a quip worthy of the irreverent Scott Brison, Canada's first openly gay federal cabinet minister who has gone from the frying pan into the fire.

The garrulous Nova Scotia Member of Parliament, former investment banker and leadership contender for the Progressive Conservative party was vaulted into a senior cabinet post Tuesday by Prime Minister Paul Martin, barely half a year after defecting from the Tories. (story)

Brison, who turned 37 in May, was given Public Works, the sprawling, big-budget department that had a reputation as the musty basement of federal patronage politics even before it cultured the festering sponsorship scandal.

Brison once said that he entered politics with the federal Tories because he loves a reclamation project. In Public Works - with its looming sponsorship inquiry, 40,000 contracts per year, $10 billion annually in procurement and 14,000 employees - Brison has a beauty.

``My background within the private sector can certainly help,'' he said Tuesday following a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall where he was sworn in.

Brison vowed to demonstrate ``a day-to-day basis respect for the hard-earned tax dollars of Canadians.''

Brison floored the freshly merged Conservative party on Dec. 10 with a scathing defection. ``I have no interest in being part of a right-wing debating club where we get together at conventions and debate how to privatize sidewalks,'' he said of the dominant Alliance fold.

Since then, reaction to the sharp-tongued MP has tended to fall into two deeply divided camps.

Former New Democrat MP Lorne Nystrom, who worked with Brison on the Commons finance committee before losing his Regina seat in the June 28 election, considers Brison a good friend.

``He's smart, he has a good political nose, he's competent, he's efficient, he works hard, he works well with people,'' Nystrom said in an interview.

The veteran New Democrat said Brison's lack of Liberal party connections makes him an ideal candidate to breathe some fresh air into Public Works.

``I think it's a brilliant move,'' said Nystrom.

``It cuts the ties with the past and sends the signal that here's somebody who doesn't have the past relationships (with Liberal insiders). ... It's refreshing.''

It's not the first testament to Brison's political skills, but it comes from a relatively unbiased source.

Conservatives were seething Tuesday.

``How does any one of us deal with Mr. Brison, who would stand there and tell us all we're great Conservatives and how this new party was great - and at the same time was negotiating with the Liberals to join their party,'' spat the party's House leader, John Reynolds.

``This kind of integrity seems to be on the Liberal side.''

Martin made Brison a parliamentary secretary within days of the defection, with special responsibility for Canada-U.S. relations. Brison traveled with Martin to a G-8 summit in Georgia during the election campaign.

Many of his former Tory friends say Brison's being used.

``Whenever Paul Martin wants to try to paint the Conservative party as intolerant, he will point to the defection of Scott Brison, the gay MP, as evidence,'' Conservative Senator Marjorie LeBreton wrote in a January op-ed piece.

``It's such an ironic shame that Scott now risks becoming far more famous for his sexual orientation than for his considerable talents in finance and economics.''

Brison has always had a disarming manner about his personal life. He called his dog Scandal ``because wherever I go, it follows,'' he liked to joke.

The Liberals, needless-to-say, are ecstatic to have him aboard.

``There is no limit to the potential of Scott Brison's political career,'' Martin said at a rally in Brison's riding on the last day of the federal election campaign.

Indeed, Brison had two prime ministers from two different parties - the current office-holder and former Tory prime minister Joe Clark - campaign on his behalf last month.

So a cabinet post is just another rung in a career that shows no signs of a pause.

Brison is the youngest, by some years, of four children of a grocery store owner in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

He went to his first political meeting at age 12 and became president of Nova Scotia's PC Youth at age 19, the same year he started a fridge rental business as a commerce student at Dalhousie University.

Brison then joined a money-losing paint manufacturer and helped turn it around, eventually taking the company public and running its North American sales out of an office in New York, where he lived for several years.