OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce 12 changes to his cabinet Friday morning, bringing in eight new ministers in one of his biggest cabinet shuffles since he was elected nine years ago. The National Post obtained the list from multiple sources with direct knowledge of the changes.
Trudeau had been considering changes for some time, but the blockbuster resignation of his deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday forced him to act quickly.
New Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc will keep his new portfolio but will no longer be minister of public safety and democratic institutions. Longtime Ottawa MP David McGuinty will be the new minister of Public Safety. McGuinty, whose brother is former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, was chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. The committee worked extensively on foreign interference.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand and Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor also held several portfolios for weeks before Friday’s shuffle.
Anand will remain minister of transport, a portfolio she assumed in September when Pablo Rodriguez resigned, and will also be responsible for internal trade.
Petitpas Taylor will replace her at Treasury Board.
Trudeau also named former Ontario Liberal leadership candidate Nathaniel Erskine-Smith to cabinet as minister of housing. The Toronto MP had recently said he would be leaving federal politics. He will replace Nova Scotia MP Sean Fraser in the role.
This year alone, nine cabinet ministers have resigned, announced they would not run for re-election or been fired. The new cabinet will not include a single Alberta representative. Meanwhile, Quebec will now have 11 ministers, including the prime minister. Manitoba MP Terry Duguid becomes Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for Prairie Economic Development Canada.
After National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau recently announced she would not run for the Liberal Party, Trudeau decided to appoint Sherbrooke MP Élisabeth Brière to replace her.
Another Quebecer, Rachel Bendayan, becomes Minister of Official Languages and Associate Minister of Public Safety.
Steven MacKinnon will become Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour and Gary Anandasangaree becomes minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs and Minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.
Other new faces who will be sworn in this morning include Ruby Sahota as minister of Democratic Institutions and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario; Darren Fisher as minister of Veterans Affairs and associate minister of National Defence; and Newfoundland MP Joanne Thompson, who will become minister of seniors.
The new cabinet will hold its first meeting Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.
National Post
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