MONTREAL — If Stephen Harper were directing a Shakespearean play instead of a government he would be looking at making it through opening night with the actors he initially cast as courtiers thrust at the last minute in the leading roles of Hamlet and Ophelia.

The casting for the cabinet the prime minister designed at mid-mandate to take the Conservatives into next fall’s campaign was based on a pre-election script that bears little resemblance to the one dictated by recent international and economic developments.

As a result, the last sitting of the current Parliament finds the government’s best performers confined to support or cameo roles in the House of Commons.

The rising stars that the Conservatives would want to showcase in the lead-up to the fall election — in particular women — can do little more in question period than sit back and applaud on cue as some of their less communication-savvy colleagues struggle in front of the cameras.

There are MPs who never shine more brightly in the House than when they are unrehearsed and others whose political safety along with that of their party is best ensured when they are solidly anchored to preestablished lines of argument.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver, his national defence colleague Rob Nicholson and Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney all fall in the latter category.

Now events have propelled the three of them in the harsh pre-election spotlight.

That was not the scenario Harper and his strategists had in mind when Nicholson and Blaney were assigned their current portfolios in the summer of 2013.

At the time, the notion of a Canadian military mission in Iraq was not on the radar. With the Afghan operation wound down, overseeing the Defence Department was expected to involve more bean-counting than cutting-edge initiatives.

Similarly a regional minister with no senior cabinet experience such as Blaney looked like a decent fit for the second-tier public safety portfolio. Back in 2013 little did anyone imagine that this federal brief would soon attract more attention than at any time since the events of Sept. 11.

Finally when Oliver stepped into the finance breach last year it was assumed that his mission would essentially amount to following the road map to budget surpluses that Jim Flaherty had left behind.

With the prime minister attending a funeral in Alberta on Monday, Nicholson and Oliver took uncomfortable turns in the hot-seat of the first question period of the new year.

The first gave a take of the Canadian mission in Iraq that, word for word, contradicted the one Harper had given last fall.

His finance colleague, Joe Oliver, so strenuously insisted that, notwithstanding a sharp drop in energy prices, all was in hand on the fiscal front that he seemed to be arguing against his own case for a delayed budget.

Even Conservative insiders concede that the government looked more tired and more listless on the opening day of the last parliamentary sitting before the election than is good for a party that will soon be making the case that it still has the energy for a fourth mandate.

If this were earlier in the political calendar the prime minister might consider realigning his cabinet. But with an election only months away, a shuffle on the upper deck is not on.

But that does not mean that voters will be seeing as much of Oliver, Nicholson and Blaney as circumstances would otherwise dictate or even as much as they saw on Monday.

If anything, expect to see less of Oliver on his feet in question period between now and budget day and more of industry and employment ministers James Moore and Jason Kenney acting as go-to ministers on issues pertaining to the economy.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird flanked Nicholson for a parliamentary committee appearance on the Iraq mission on Thursday.

On Friday, Harper himself was on centre stage laying out the government’s new anti-terrorism measures and fielding media questions.

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With Justice Minister Peter MacKay acting as MC, Blaney — whose name as a public safety minister is on the legislation — was reduced to introducing his boss.

There are other ways than a shuffle for a prime minister to consign ministers to the cameo roles that were meant for them.

Chantal Hébert is a national affairs writer. Her column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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