Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is planning a sizable cabinet shuffle on Friday, sources confirm to CTV News.
The long-awaited reconfiguration of Trudeau’s front bench comes amid turmoil for the Liberal government after the shocking resignation of Chrystia Freeland, and as a few ministers juggle multiple portfolios.
How sizable a shuffle this will be remains to be seen. Though there are a number of vacancies to fill, as several ministers in recent months have either left their cabinet positions, or have declared they are not seeking re-election, which is typically a trigger for their replacement.
The ceremony at Rideau Hall will be the prime minister’s first public appearance – beyond Liberal holiday events – since Monday’s tumultuous events that have prompted new calls from both outside and within his party, for him to resign.
Under Trudeau, the Liberals have been facing persistently poor polling numbers that have had them trailing Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives for more than a year. They’ve also faced significant byelection losses, and have heard repeated calls for the need of a shakeup or reset to Trudeau’s inner circle.
Asked Thursday whether Trudeau still had the full support of his cabinet to stay on as prime minister, Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said “yes.”
Speaking at a funding announcement in New Brunswick, LeBlanc dodged a question about his own leadership aspirations stating that “if the prime minister has the full support of his cabinet, then why would we contemplate what happens after he decides to leave?”
With a growing number of Liberal caucus members pushing for the prime minister to step down, LeBlanc said that Trudeau “listened carefully when that view was expressed to him… and he said he would reflect carefully on what he’s heard. That’s how the process works.”
Which jobs are up for grabs, and who could be on the move?
The ministers currently balancing multiple cabinet positions due to colleagues resigning are:
- Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who took on the top economic post on Monday after Freeland quit. LeBlanc has retained the public safety and democratic institutions files, though sources have indicated that would be temporary.
- Treasury Board President Anita Anand, who was given the transport portfolio in September after Pablo Rodriguez quit cabinet to run for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP).
- Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence Ginette Petitpas Taylor, who was tapped to temporarily also become the employment, workforce development and official languages minister, after Randy Boissonnault announced he was stepping out of cabinet to focus on clearing the allegations against him.
The current cabinet members who won’t be re-offering and whose cabinet roles could be up for grabs so MPs who are running again could be given the chance to increase their profiles and better their chances of re-electability are:
- Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Sean Fraser
- National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau
- Minister of Sport and Physical Activity Carla Qualtrough
- Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario Filomena Tassi, and
- Minister of Northern Affairs, Minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, and Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency Dan Vandal.
Throughout his shuffles, Trudeau has sought to uphold gender parity and balance regional representation as best as possible, though, with smaller pools of backbench MPs to look to in Western and Atlantic Canada, upholding those tenets may be more challenging this time.
“It’s a chance to reward people, quite frankly… But it doesn’t change, fundamentally, the situation that we’re in. The prime minister is on the ropes. It’s well known by party members as well as the general public,” said former Liberal premier Frank McKenna.
McKenna said Friday’s event may not mean Trudeau’s ready to declare his next steps, rather the shuffle is needed because the government has to continue to function with people in positions to make decisions.
“The machinery of government grinds on, even though there may be political change in the winds,” he said.
What about Mark Carney? Or a prorogation?
Tied up in the speculation about the Liberals’ next moves have been questions around whether former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney could finally make his debut in federal politics beyond acting as an adviser.
According to LeBlanc, if he is, it won’t be as finance minister.
“I haven’t had any conversations with Mark Carney myself… when the prime minister asked me to be the finance minister, he told me that I was going to be the finance minister in his government until the next election, that I was going to be the finance minister to present the next budget,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“Mr. Carney isn’t about to become Canada’s finance minister in the short term.”
There’s also been plenty of questions around what the prime minister’s plans are for Parliament and whether a prorogation could be on the horizon.
A prorogation would end the current parliamentary session, kill all legislative business that has not passed, and put any plans to table further legislation on pause. A new session of Parliament would begin with a Speech from the Throne, setting the stage for a key confidence vote.
Proroguing now could potentially buy the prime minister some time, either to work on restabilizing his grip on power, or to allow the time for his party to conduct a leadership race.
While not commenting directly on the potential for the prime minister to pull this lever, LeBlanc did note the Liberals did survive several confidence votes last week, referring to the series of last-minute votes on opposition motions and supplementary estimates.
He also said that with U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 and Parliament resuming Jan. 27, “Canadians would be impatient if we spent an inordinate amount of time focusing on ourselves.”
Former Conservative cabinet minister Perrin Beatty said the “vacuum” in Ottawa can’t persist.
“I don’t think anybody expects this Parliament to last beyond a spring budget at the very latest, and we’ll be into an election, and I think it’s going to be important that we clear the air and that whoever is leading the country has a mandate to do so, particularly given the crisis and the relationship between Canada and the U.S.,” he said.
“I think all of the focus at this point is essentially short term.”
With files from CTV News’ Vassy Kapelos, Brennan MacDonald and Judy Trinh
This is a developing story, more to come…