When you think about it, the changes that Premier Dalton McGuinty made to his cabinet last week were not major.

They really involved just three ministers, and the whole thing seemed to be prompted by a desire of former energy minister Gerry Phillips to have his workload reduced.

It seems most in the media didn't think it was especially big news. Instead of focusing on the creation of a new, so-called "super ministry," combining the energy and infrastructure portfolios, and putting reliable government workhorse George Smitherman in charge of it, much of the attention seems to have been directed toward the new Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. And people are not talking a lot about David Caplan's qualifications for the job. Much of the focus has apparently been aimed at his weight and his history as a smoker.

Now we do grant there is a bit of irony there, and perhaps a minister of a highprofile portfolio (and we think Health qualifies as high profile) should set a good example. On the other hand, an important consideration is how good is he at running a ministry. Obviously, he's done a good job of keeping track of infrastructure renewal, at least in McGuinty's eyes. Were that not the case, we would submit that Friday's announcement would have seen Caplan becoming a back bencher.

And if there are issues about his weight or his personal habits, well even ministers of the Crown are entitled to their own private lives, and we would submit those issues are matters for Caplan, and perhaps his doctor.

It will also be interesting to see how much of an impact this expanded workload has on Smitherman, especially if suggestions that he plans to run for Mayor of Toronto are true.

He was quoted in Saturday's Toronto Star as saying he has no plans to run municipally in 2010, and we hope that's the case. The provincial cabinet was never intended to be a grooming ground for aspiring municipal politicians, and we don't want to see it become that.

So assuming Smitherman is in for the long haul, it will be interesting to see how he handles his expanded workload. He should be up to it, considering he's leaving a big ministry to go to another big ministry.

The fact that only three ministers were impacted by this shuffle speaks to some extent of the quality of the team that McGuinty has put together. Unlike other governments and cabinets, the group he assembled in 2003 and has adjusted from time to time has done a pretty good job of staying out of trouble. True, there have been a couple of exceptions. Greg Sorbara was forced to step aside as finance minister for a time, but as things turned out, the only scandalous thing about that was the fact his name was included on a search warrant that started the whole fuss in the first place, when it shouldn't have been.

It's hard to think of a government in recent memory that has been that clean.

Last week's cabinet shuffle was evidently prompted by the natural course of events, as opposed to trying to clean up some mess, either real or perceived.

We now stay tuned for what's going to happen next.