JUDIQUE - Premier Tim Houston's first cabinet had a pronounced Strait Area flavour when he and his fellow ministers were sworn in on Tuesday afternoon, two weeks after Houston's Progressive Conservatives swept the region and the province to form a minority government.

Fresh off his fourth consecutive win in the riding of Inverness, Allan MacMaster is now Nova Scotia's Deputy Premier, Minister of Finance and Minister of Labour Relations. The one-time senior adviser to former Premier Rodney MacDonald was also named Minister Responsible for the Treasury Board and Minister of the Office of Gaelic Affairs. 

Tuesday's announcements were a significant promotion for MacMaster after twelve years as an opposition MLA - a stretch that might not have actually happened, considering that MacMaster's initial decision was to pass on running for the PC nomination for a by-election in Inverness triggered by MacDonald's resignation in the summer of 2009, following his government's election defeat six weeks earlier. 

Noting that his father, legendary Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster, was seriously ill at the time of the nomination, MacMaster recalled that he "almost felt guilty" about reconsidering the opportunity to run for provincial politics. 

"But I remember one of my first cousins saying something to me, and I remember being encouraged [by others], and I thought, 'You know what, maybe I should do this,'" he added. "And as soon as I did, it's like my father got a lift from it, because he lived for another good five years after that. And I think he wanted to see what happened, and he wanted to see if I would win. So it was a good decision for both of us."

In addition to MacMaster, two new PC MLAs from the Strait Area received cabinet posts on Tuesday. Antigonish MLA Michelle Thompson is now Nova Scotia's Minister of Health, while Guysborough-Tracadie MLA Greg Morrow has become the provincial Minister of Agriculture.