Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is adding eight Liberal MPs to his front bench and will be reassigning four current ministers in Friday morning’s cabinet shuffle, CTV News has learned.
Making several changes to his ministerial roster now comes after a tumultuous week for the federal Liberals, and is being seen as a bid to inject some stability, exactly one month before U.S. president-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The ceremony, presided over by Gov. Gen. Mary Simon in the ballroom at Rideau Hall is set to begin at 11:30 a.m. EST and Trudeau will attend, his first public appearance since facing fresh calls to resign.
Here’s who is moving, according to a list of changes leaked to CTV News and confirmed by a second source, ahead of the ceremony.
According to the memo, and as sources had confirmed yesterday, Ontario MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith will become Canada’s next housing, infrastructure and communities minister, taking over for Sean Fraser, who announced on Monday that he wouldn’t be running again.
And, taking over the public safety portfolio from Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc – who took on the top economic post on Monday after Freeland quit – will be Ontario MP and current chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) David McGuinty.
The other Liberal MPs who will be joining cabinet are:
- Quebec MP Rachel Bendayan, who will become Canada’s official languages minister and associate minister of public safety.
- Quebec MP Élisabeth Brière, who will become the minister of national revenue, taking over for Marie-Claude Bibeau who isn’t running again.
- Manitoba MP Terry Duguid, who will become the and minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada.
- Nova Scotia MP Darren Fisher, who will be Canada’s new minister of veterans affairs and associate defence minister.
- Newfoundland and Labrador MP Joanne Thompson, who will take on the minister of seniors title, which was a role handed off, after Seamus O’Regan left cabinet, and
- Ontario MP and outgoing whip Ruby Sahota who will become the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, a role outgoing minister Filomena Tassi held.
Duguid and Sahota are also expected to pick up additional cabinet titles, with the sport and democratic institutions portfolios on the table, but the sources weren’t able to confirm which the pair may be getting assigned.
The current cabinet ministers moving into new, or amended positions are:
- Anita Anand, who had been doing double duty as Treasury Board president and transport minister, will now be the minister of transport and internal trade.
- Gary Anandasangaree, who maintains his role as minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, is picking up the northern affairs and Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency positions from Dan Vandal who isn’t running again.
- Steven MacKinnon, who is keeping his job as labour minister but is picking up the employment, workforce development and official languages role from Randy Boissonnault, who left cabinet last month to focus on clearing the allegations against him.
- And, Ginette Petitpas Taylor will become Canada’s next Treasury Board president.
As anticipated, based on comments LeBlanc made yesterday, Mark Carney is not being appointed a cabinet position in this shuffle after Trudeau assured LeBlanc he’d be staying in his current role until the next election.
Sources have indicated that while Trudeau is ready to make changes to his inner circle, it’s not to be interpreted as the prime minister being ready to declare his next steps, and it remains to be seen if he takes questions following the shuffle.
Trudeau has also called a cabinet meeting for 3 p.m. EST.
Asked Thursday whether Trudeau still has the full support of his cabinet to stay on as prime minister, LeBlanc said “yes.”
With files from CTV News’ Jeremie Charron and Vassy Kapelos