The first real test of David Alward's leadership comes Tuesday, the same day he is sworn in as New Brunswick's 32nd premier.
The Conservative leader, whose party won 42 of the legislature's 55 seats in the election two weeks ago, will appoint a slimmed-down, 15-member cabinet -- but the task will not be an easy one.
Like all newly minted premiers, Alward has a tricky balancing act to perform when selecting ministers of the Crown.
To ensure proper representation, the cabinet must include members from various regions, including rural and urban communities.
With such a large caucus to chose from, you wouldn't think this would be a problem.
But nothing is so simple in politics.
There are large chunks of the province's east coast where the Tories were shut out by the Liberals; ridings with large populations of francophones. About one in three people in New Brunswick have Acadian roots, making the francophone community a force to be reckoned with in the officially bilingual province.
"He has to have a strong contingent of francophones in cabinet," said Donald Wright, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick campus in Fredericton.
As well, there has to be a mix of fresh faces and members of the old guard.
Again, this won't be easy to accomplish because there are about a dozen experienced politicians who served as ministers in Bernard Lord's Tory government, which was defeated by the Liberals in 2006.
Alward was one of them.
Still, he would be wise to put his own stamp on the new government, Wright said.
"He doesn't want to be Lord II. He wants to be his own man, his own premier. ... He wants that wisdom at the table, but he also has to bring new blood to cabinet, new ideas, new enthusiasm."
That means taking chances on new members of the legislature and those who never made it into cabinet.
Meanwhile, there are only eight women in the entire legislature -- all of them on the government side. Some of them appear certain to get cabinet posts, including Marie-Claude Blais, the only lawyer in the Tory caucus. It has been speculated the member for Moncton North will be named attorney general.
Each of the province's three main cities -- Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton -- will likely get two cabinet ministers each, says Don Desserud, political science professor at the University of New Brunswick campus in Saint John.
"Those three cities are like triplets at a birthday party," he said. "If there's even a perception that one has a bigger piece of cake, they're going to go ballistic."
Former cabinet ministers Trevor Holder and Margaret-Ann Blaney are thought to be top contenders to represent Saint John.
In the Fredericton area, former cabinet minister Jody Carr and forest industry advocate Troy Lifford are in the running.
Bruce Fitch, another former cabinet minister, is a contender to be the voice for Moncton.
In the north, former cabinet minister Madelein Dube has political clout, having won her riding of Edmundston-Saint-Basile with 75 per cent of the votes cast.
On the Acadian Peninsula, Paul Robichaud has solid credentials with the francophone community, having served in cabinet as the minister responsible for La Francophonie.
In rural, western New Brunswick, Dale Graham has represented the riding of Carleton and its previous incarnations since 1993. The former deputy premier has been a mentor to Alward and is sure to play a key role in the government.
The previous Liberal government, led by Shawn Graham for one term, had a much larger cabinet -- 20, including the premier -- even though they had only 31 seats at dissolution.
Shrinking the size of the cabinet was one of Alward's high-profile campaign pledges, a move that he said will save the province about $10 million annually.
