One way to identify who matters most in the Ontario legislature is where they sit, and MPPs have shuffled around between seats a lot lately.

The first moves were because the opposition Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats changed leaders, which led them to change their seating arrangements and indicated something of the pecking order in their parties.

The Liberals have changed theirs, because they fired a minister, David Caplan, after he failed to protect ticket buyers as minister in charge of lotteries and later the public generally from waste in setting up an electronic health records registry.

Caplan, once in the front row, where the heaviest hitters in all parties usually sit, has been banished to the third, but Premier Dalton McGuinty may still restore him to cabinet one day, because in the same breath he brought back once-fired environment minister Laurel Broten in a different role.

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne has been promoted to the front row, first because she is generally on top of her job, which is one of government's biggest, and gets good marks for its education policies.

McGuinty also owed a large debt to Wynne, because she defeated then Conservative leader John Tory in her Toronto riding in the 2007 election, eliminated a possibly dangerous opponent and plunged that party into two years of uncertainty and quarreling over its leadership in which it virtually stood still.

Leaders try to deploy their MPPs like troops going into battle and McGuinty has arranged his seating so his women ministers are very much on display whenever the TV cameras focus on him, which normally is half the daily question period.

Health Promotion Minister Margarett Best and Caplan's replacement, Deb Matthews, can be seen because they sit directly behind the premier and sometimes the cameras also show Tourism Minister Monique Smith, Children and Youth Services Minister Broten, Community and Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur and Citizenship Minister Michael Chan, all close to the premier.

Best also is black and TV viewers get an impression of a cabinet in which women and visible minorities play key roles, which is good for votes.

The Conservatives' new leader, Tim Hudak, an extreme right-winger, has Christine Elliott sitting at his right hand in the front row, which is an attempt to suggest he respects those in his party who have more moderate views.

Elliott ran third in their leadership race, but was the only candidate who expressed moderate views and Hudak is hoping seating her next to him will appease some the party is in danger of losing.

Elliot, the competent wife of federal finance minister Jim Flaherty, has yet to show she has her husband's instinct for going for opponents' jugular, which will be a necessity when Hudak is away and she leads their party in the legislature.

Hudak has shown he appreciates experience by installing veteran Bob Runciman in the front row to his left. Runciman was interim leader twice and kept the party showing some semblance of unity and purpose during its trials without a permanent leader and knows where the bodies are buried and how the legislature works.

The New Democrats, with 10 MPPs, have only four front-row seats and leader Andrea Horwath and former leader Howard Hampton automatically have one each.

The party's House leader, Peter Kormos, who besides being the most entertaining MPP raises the most damaging questions, has another and Rosario Marchese, a well-informed critic on education, has the fourth.

But it is difficult to think of an MPP who contributes more thoughtful commentary, particularly on municipal affairs and the growing influence of developers, than Michael Prue, who ran for NDP leader.

Prue blew it particularly because he wanted to revisit issues such as the province unfairly funding some faith-based schools and not others, which other politicians more concerned with their own self-preservation steer clear of.

Prue remains stuck in the second row — don't judge MPPs' worth solely on where they sit.