‘LISTEN HARD’ AND MEND FENCES
Freeland’s pick as deputy drops her in hot seat
CABINET SHUFFLE
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled his new cabinet Wednesday, making room for western voices at the table, but also putting one of his best performers at his side to deal with fraying relationships with premiers across the country.
Former Foreign Affairs minister Chrystia Freeland will become Trudeau’s first deputy prime minister and shift her focus to intergovernmental affairs, negotiating with premiers like Alberta’s Jason Kenney and Ontario’s Doug Ford on issues like carbon taxes and pharmacare.
Freeland will maintain her focus on U.s.-canada relations, helping to ensure the renegotiated NAFTA agreement gets across the finish line.
Trudeau said Freeland’s handling of the important files at Foreign Affairs gave him the confidence to put her in this new role.
“Chrystia and I have worked very closely on some of the biggest files facing Canada,” said Trudeau.
“Our ability to work well together on these issues that touch national unity, touch energy and environment, touch relations with all provinces and regions in this country, is going to be an extremely important thing at a time when we see some very different perspectives across the country that need to be brought together.”
Although she was born in Peace River, Alta., Freeland represents a downtown Toronto riding, but she’s probably the closest thing the government has to an Albertan in caucus after the Liberals were wiped out in the province.
After the Rideau Hall ceremony, Freeland said people in Alberta and Saskatchewan sent the Liberal party a message and going forward they will have to listen.
“What we need to do as a federal government, when it comes to the west and when it comes to all our provincial relationships, is really listen hard,” she said.
Trudeau also appointed Winnipeg MP Jim Carr to act as the special representative for the Prairies. In the last Parliament, Carr was Natural Resources minister and then Trade minister, but he was recently diagnosed with cancer.
Trudeau said Carr’s first focus is his health, but he is absolutely prepared to take on the job.
“He was very clear to me and very clear to everyone that being able to continue to be a strong voice for this government in the west, and a strong voice from the west to this government, is going to be important to him.”
Kenney, who has been a thorn in Trudeau’s side, took the opportunity to extend an olive branch to the new ministers.
“The Government of Alberta hopes to find common ground with the federal government to create jobs and growth, in part through responsible resource development,” Kenney wrote on Twitter. The premier said he particularly looked forward to working with Carr, along with Freeland and Seamus O’regan, the new Natural Resources minister.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also said he looked forward to working with Freeland, but said it’s actions that will matter most.
“It is not about who is sitting around the table, it is about the decisions they make.”
Trudeau moved Environment Minister Catherine Mckenna to Infrastructure and replaced her with B.C. MP Jonathan Wilkinson.
Wilkinson said Canadians endorsed stronger action on climate change during the election, but he said the government has to recognize the legitimate economic concerns of western provinces.
Natural Resources and Environment are two especially contentious portfolios in Western Canada, where the federal carbon tax and the Liberals’ overhaul of Canada’s environmental assessment regime are very unpopular.
Trudeau picked O’regan to head up Natural Resources, a job which will include getting the Trans Mountain pipeline built and put into service.
An MP from oil-producing Newfoundland, O’regan likely has some understanding
HE HAS DOUBLED DOWN ON THE SAME FACES.
of the issues facing the oil and gas industry in Western Canada. Still, the former journalist and co-host of CTV’S Canada AM faced criticism for his performance as minister of Veterans Affairs, a position he held from 2017 until he was shuffled to Indigenous Services in January.
In 2018, he drew the ire of some veterans when he compared his transition from journalism to politics to the experience of military members leaving the forces.
“Not to say he wasn’t a great talk show host, but he has not exactly been sterling as minister, particularly in Veterans Affairs,” said Jack Mintz, president’s fellow at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy.
“I think it may be an issue of concern to the oil and gas industry and Alberta government that he won’t be that strong of a minister.”
But Martha Hall Findlay, president and CEO of the Canada West Foundation and a former Liberal MP, said the ministers matter less than the actions Trudeau takes to address concerns about resource development. “If the Prime Minister’s Office doesn’t recognize that some significantly different approaches are needed, things could just arguably get worse, because people will feel that you’ve just played musical chairs,” she said.
Some observers were surprised that Trudeau elected not to give the environment portfolio to prominent Quebec environmentalist Steven Guilbeault, a star rookie MP from Montreal who was named Heritage minister instead.
But Findlay said Trudeau made the right decision, and that Guilbeault’s appointment would have been “disastrous” for relations with Western Canada.
“Steven Guilbeault, for all of his competence… he is an avowed keep-it-in-the-grounder,” she said.
Chris Barrington-leigh, an assistant professor at the Mcgill School of Environment, agreed that it would have been a “risky” move to give Guilbeault the environment portfolio.
But he also said the Liberals have made their position on key environmental issues like carbon pricing clear, regardless of the minister.
“That’s a battle they won,” he said. “The thing is implemented, and people will find it doesn’t actually change their life drastically.”
New Brunswick MP Dominic Leblanc was met with a huge ovation as he walked up to accept a role as president of the Queen’s Privy Council. Leblanc has been undergoing treatment for leukemia and appeared at the ceremony completely bald and wearing a surgical mask.
As a counterweight to the big changes, Trudeau also kept a core of experienced ministers in their portfolios. Most notably, Bill Morneau will keep his job as Finance minister, Marc Garneau stays on at the Transportation department and Carolyn Bennett will continue to be minister for Indigenous Relations. Justice Minister David Lametti will stay in the job he got in the wake of the Snc-lavalin Affair, when Jody Wilson-raybould was shuffled out of the Justice department and later resigned.
Lametti read a new oath for the job that promises to uphold independence of the judiciary and prosecutors.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said the cabinet was “bigger and more bloated” version of the previous Trudeau cabinet and didn’t represent real change.
“Naming a new cabinet was an opportunity for Trudeau to change course and abandon his reckless approach of dividing the country with failed policies,” said Scheer. “Instead he has doubled down on the same faces and the same failures.”
Along with Scheer, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he was more interesting in what the government will actually do.
“Changing the ministers or not, it doesn’t give me any more or less confidence in this government,” said Singh, who could be an important player in the minority Parliament that opens for business on Dec. 5.
It will be the policies that get NDP votes, Singh said, not the people running the departments.