More cabinet ministers mean more money and more votes

Being a cabinet minister has its perks: prestige, the opportunity to serve Canadians in an important way, and a hefty $75,516.00 bonus, on top of the $157,731.00 yearly salary of an MP. But in addition to these benefits, cabinet ministers also have a better chance of being re-elected than their backbench colleagues.

The rest of the article can be read on The Globe and Mail website.

Along with doing the calculations for this article, I was also able to determine the "new cabinet minister effect", similar to the one I calculated for "star" candidates. It's not a huge boost, but it is a boost nevertheless. It will help me make (hopefully) more accurate riding projections once I'm ready to pronounce on each of the 308 ridings.

UPDATE: The data at the Pundits' Guide was used to run my calculations for this article. I'm sure everyone who writes about federal politics in Canada will agree that the site is an invaluable resource, and I absent-mindedly neglected to credit the site in my original draft. The error has been rectified.