Politics This Morning: Big promotions, curious demotions, and a few hot potatoes

Good Thursday morning, Yesterday’s cabinet shuffle featured the usual range of emotions and career trajectories. There were experienced veterans cycling through to new roles, a few curious demotions, one or two hot potatoes being handed off to new victims, and several senior figures who may now simply be expected to fade into the background. The cabinet remains the same size—19 men and 19 women in addition to the prime minister—but only eight ministers saw no change to the roles they began the week with. Seven were dropped from cabinet entirely and replaced by newcomers, while the rest have moved to new posts or seen their portfolios adjusted or rebranded. We’ll start with the hot potatoes: PABLO RODRIGUEZ is moving from heritage to transport, leaving PASCALE ST-ONGE to continue his war against tech giants Google and Meta. Heritage has been a difficult place for previous ministers MÉLANIE JOLY and STEVEN GUILBEAULT. DOMINIC LEBLANC has picked up the public safety portfolio and held on to democratic institutions and intergovernmental affairs, while handing infrastructure and communities off to SEAN FRASER, who will combine those portfolios with a more prominent soapbox for housing. Both are being brought in as fixers, but with opposing assignments. LeBlanc is being asked to sing soothing lullabies on firearms and on foreign interference in Canadian elections, while Fraser is being asked to put housing in the spotlight and to convince people that the Liberals are making it a priority. Major promotions for parliamentary secretaries Incoming minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Gary Anandasangaree, centre, poses with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Governor General Mary Simon after swearing his oath of office on July 26. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Two long-term parliamentary secretaries who were first elected 2015 have jumped directly into senior cabinet roles: ARIF VIRANI as justice minister and attorney general, and GARY ANANDASANGAREE as Crown-Indigenous relations minister. Anandasangaree will have a tough act to follow; MARC MILLER, now off to the immigration department, was able to build decent relationships with Indigenous leaders who have no shortage of reasons to mistrust Canada’s intentions in treaty negotiations. Virani, whose downtown Toronto riding is often a tight race between the Liberals and the NDP, replaces Montreal MP DAVID LAMETTI, who was one of three senior cabinet ministers booted out of cabinet entirely. The others—former public safety minister MARCO MENDICINO and former Treasury Board president MONA FORTIER—also represent relatively safe Liberal ridings. Former Ottawa deputy mayor JENNA SUDDS will be the capital city’s representative in cabinet, replacing Fortier. Sudds will serve as families minister, although it seems as though that transition comes after KARINA GOULD has finished most of the heavy lifting on the childcare file. Gould, who is pregnant with her second child, will take over as Government House Leader in what CBC reporter JANYCE MCGREGOR described as a canny move to counteract the excess of testosterone that has been flying around in the House lately. New Small Business Minister Rechie Valdez is sworn in to cabinet at Rideau Hall on July 26. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Look for the Liberal campaign machine to make full use of RECHIE VALDEZ to counteract criticism that it is out of touch with the struggles of small businesses or immigrants. The first-term MP from Mississauga, Ont., who left a career in banking and started a bakery, is also the first Filipina MP and cabinet minister in Canadian history. She began her oath of office with the Filipino greeting “mabuhay,” and drew support from her cabinet colleagues and family members as she struggled to hold back tears. Within cabinet, one of the biggest promotions went to Edmonton MP RANDY BOISSONNAULT. He shifts from the tourism file to take over as employment minister, heading one of the larger federal departments in terms of staff numbers, and also adds the official languages file. Curious demotions for other 'fixers' in cabinet There were odd demotions for ANITA ANAND and CARLA QUALTROUGH, two strong performers who have been moved around the cabinet table in previous shuffles to put out fires in the military and with the Phoenix pay system. Government representatives looked to spin Anand’s shift from National Defence to the Treasury Board as a move to put a strong performer on a domestic economic file, but some see this move as a warning to a rising star not to fly too close to the sun. Ukrainian defence minister OLEKSII REZNIKOV tweeted his thanks to Anand "for her great support and for her personal friendship," and wished her luck in her new post. Qualtrough’s move from employment and disability inclusion to sport also looks like a clear demotion that will worry disability advocates who were counting on her to lead the creation of the Canada Disability Benefit over the next 12 months. Bill C-22, which passed through Parliament in June, was a framework bill that left most of the heavy lifting to regulations and to ongoing negotiations with the provinces. Global News’ chief political correspondent DAVID AKIN tweeted his surprise, writing that Qualtrough has developed a reputation among bureaucrats and opposition MPs as “an all-star minister able to get things done on tough files.” “Now punted to ‘Sport’ - she might as well have joined Lametti, Mendicino, etc. on the backbench,” wrote Akin. The British Columbia MP, a former Paralympic swimmer who is legally blind, has been sport minister before, but never as her sole portfolio. KAMAL KHERA, a former nurse in Brampton, Ont., will add the disability portfolio to the diversity and inclusion portfolio. One aspect of continuity from Khera’s previous job as seniors minister is that the government has long said the disability benefit will be modelled on the Guaranteed Income Supplement for seniors. New citizens’ services minister could be walking into a trap Bloc Québécois Leader YVES-FRANÇOIS BLANCHET said in a statement that the cabinet shuffle shows the government was aware of dysfunction at several departments and on several files. Blanchet highlighted the backlog at passport offices, the chaos at airports, and delays on immigration applications, among other problems. When the government pulled several ministers into a task force last summer to address these high-profile blunders with service delivery, PTM speculated that the creation of the task force may also have been a tactic to prevent any one minister from being tagged with the blame. In his new role as minister for the newly created citizen’s services portfolio, British Columbia MP TERRY BEECH will now serve as government’s lead customer service spokesperson. CTV News points out that his fellow MPs voted him Parliamentarian of the Year for civic outreach in 2018, so he may have what it takes. But if Beech doesn’t have serious input at the relevant departments—Transport Canada for airports, for example, or Employment and Social Development Canada for passports—then he might just end up being a human shield for those ministers if and when things do go wrong. What else is happening today? Deputy Prime Minister CHRYSTIA FREELAND is off to Nova Scotia, where she’ll tour areas in the Kings–Hants riding affected by recent, tragic flooding with local MP KODY BLOIS at 12:30 p.m. local time, followed by a tour of a West Hants emergency response centre. Conservative Leader PIERRE POILIEVRE, who told reporters yesterday that the worst part of the cabinet shuffle is that nobody shuffled the prime minister out of his job, continues his “Axe the Tax” tour today in northern Ontario. He will be in Sault Ste. Marie at 12:30 p.m. local time and Sudbury, Ont., at 6:30 p.m. local time. In the news ABBAS RANA and IAN CAMPBELL discuss how yesterday’s cabinet shuffle shows the Liberals response to Poilievre’s efforts to court non-white communities. kphilipupillai@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

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Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Big promotions, curious demotions, and a few hot potatoes

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters yesterday that the worst part of the cabinet shuffle is that nobody shuffled the prime minister out of his job.

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Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Big promotions, curious demotions, and a few hot potatoes

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told reporters yesterday that the worst part of the cabinet shuffle is that nobody shuffled the prime minister out of his job.

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Only $7.76 a week for an annual subscription.

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