Justin Trudeau has added eight Liberal MPs to his front bench and reassigned four ministers as part of a long-awaited cabinet shuffle.
The shuffle follows a disastrous week for the prime minister after former deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet after he told her she’d be reassigned. This followed, Freeland said, a period of tension between she and Trudeau about how to handle Canada’s finances.
The government is also bracing for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed 25% import tariff on all Canadian goods which is slated to begin next month.
Gov. Gen. Mary Simon presided over the ceremony in the Rideau Hall ballroom Friday morning, along with Trudeau. Trudeau did not hold a press conference after the shuffle, as is customary.
Current cabinet ministers that changed or amended their positions are Anita Arnand, who is now the minister of transport and trade. She had also been serving as Treasury Board president.
However, Ginette Petitpas Taylor will now fill that position.
Steven MacKinnon has kept his role as labour minister but will also take over Randy Boissonnault’s former portfolio of employment, workforce development and official languages.
Boissonnault stepped down from cabinet last month following numerous allegations against him over falsely claiming to be of Indigenous heritage.
Gary Anandasangaree will stay on as minister of Crown-Indigenous relations while also picking up the northern affairs and Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency positions vacated by Dan Vandal, who is not running in the next election.
Ontario MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith is now minister of housing, infrastructure and communities, replacing Sean Fraser, who announced that he wouldn’t be running again on Monday.
Longtime Ottawa MP David McGuinty will move from his current position as chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians to become minister of public safety, taking over for Dominic LeBlanc, who was named finance minister Monday following Freeland’s resignation.
Other Liberal MPs newly appointed to cabinet include Quebec MP Rachel Bendayan, who will now serve as Canada’s official languages minister and associate minister of public safety.
Quebec MP Élisabeth Brière is the new minister of national revenue, taking over for Marie-Claude Bibeau after she announced she wouldn’t run again.
Ontario MP Ruby Sahota left her position as whip and will be the minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, taking over for Filomena Tassi.
Nova Scotia MP Darren Fisher has become the new minister of veterans affairs and associate defence minister.
Newfoundland and Labrador MP Joanne Thompson is now the minister of seniors, a title previously held by Seamus O’Regan until his departure from cabinet.
Manitoba MP Terry Duguid will now serve as the minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada.
