Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Minister of Education Todd Smith has resigned from cabinet and from the legislature after just over two months on the job.
According to reporting from The Canadian Press, Smith was upset that Premier Ford had shuffled him out from his role as energy minister to the education file.
Smith announced that he will be leaving politics in order to take a job in the private sector in a statement to social media.
“After almost 13 years as a Member of Provincial Parliament and 6 years in Premier Ford’s Cabinet I have made the very difficult decision to leave politics and accept a position in the private sector,” said Smith.
“To my constituents in Bay of Quinte and Prince-Edward-Hastings, thank you for your trust and support – which I am proud to say has grown significantly in each of the last four Ontario elections.”
Premier Ford thanked Smith for his service in cabinet, praising him for his work as minister of energy in the three years he held the portfolio.
“From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank Todd for his many years of service to our government, our province and our party,” said Ford.
“He leaves politics with a record that he can be incredibly proud of, including and especially fixing the previous government’s energy policies and bringing electricity prices down for hardworking families and businesses.”
Later on Friday, Premier Ford shuffled his cabinet and appointed Jill Dunlop, the former minister of colleges and universities as the new minister of education and appointed Nolan Quinn to replace Dunlop on the post-secondary education file.
Ford also appointed Kevin Holland as the new minister of forestry and forest products and Graham McGregor as the new associate minister of auto theft and bail reform.
Smith worked in a number of portfolios in his time as a Ford government cabinet minister, holding the role as government house leader, minister of government and consumer goods, minister of economic development job creation and trade, minister of children, community, and social services, and minister of energy.
Smith spent the longest time as energy minister, where he oversaw the development of new nuclear plants and the releasing of the Powering Ontario’s Growth plan to expand the province’s energy grid.
Smith is not the only valuable ally of Ford’s to leave politics, as his highly lauded minister of labour Monte McNaughton resigned in Sept. 2023 to take a job at Woodbine Entertainment Group.
