Another busy day on parliament hill, the biggest news expected was a cabinet shuffle for the Trudeau government, but NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh stole some of that thunder. Singh announced in a letter to Canadians that his caucus “will vote to bring this government down,” sometime in 2025.
The changes to the front bench this morning come after a tumultuous week with the surprise resignation of Chrystia Freeland from Finance on Monday. Eight new ministers have been appointed and four reassigned.
Among them, Ontario MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith now serving as Canada’s housing, infrastructure and communities minister, taking over for Sean Fraser, who won’t be running again.
David McGuinty will be taking over the public safety portfolio from the newly appointed Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc – and Nova Scotia MP Darren Fisher is Canada’s new Minister of Veterans affairs.
You can find the full list here:
• Ontario MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Minister of Housing Infrastructure and Communities minister.
• Ontario MP David McGuinty, Minister of Public Safety
• Quebec MP Rachel Bendayan, Minister of official languages and associate minister of public safety.
• Quebec MP Élisabeth Brière, minister of national revenue.
• Manitoba MP Terry Duguid, minister of Prairies Economic Development Canada.
• Nova Scotia MP Darren Fisher, Minister of veterans affairs and associate defence minister.
• Newfoundland and Labrador MP Joanne Thompson, minister of seniors.
• Ontario MP Ruby Sahota minister of Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.
The current cabinet ministers moving into new, or amended positions are:
• Anita Anand, who had been doing double duty as Treasury Board president and transport minister, is now the minister of transport and internal trade.
• Gary Anandasangaree, who maintains his role as minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, picks up the northern affairs and Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency positions from Dan Vandal who isn’t running again.
• Steven MacKinnon, who keeps his job as labour minister but is also taking on the employment, workforce development and official languages role from Randy Boissonnault, who left cabinet last month to focus on clearing the allegations against him.
• And, Ginette Petitpas Taylor becomes Canada’s next Treasury Board president.