MacAulay staying put
Cardigan MP keeps agriculture portfolio, LeBlanc moves from fisheries
Lawrence MacAulay will maintain a steady hand on the federal government’s agriculture portfolio, as the Trudeau government prepares to head into an election in 2019.
The Cardigan MP was kept on as federal Minister of Agriculture and Agri-foods, as the Trudeau government announced a significant shake-up of cabinet Wednesday morning. But MacAulay remained modest about the decision of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep him on in the role.
Lawrence MacAulay ranks third on the Canadian Ministry Order of Precedence and appears on the list only after Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Although the order of precedence is largely ceremonial in nature, it technically means MacAulay ranks high in the traditional succession of power amongst all government officials in Canada.
The order of precedence is unlike the role of a designated survivor in the U.S. In the United States, a role of designated survivor falls to an individual who remains at home during State of the Union addresses in the event of an attack on the entire leadership of the government. In Canada, very little would occur in terms of the normal workings of government in this instance.
The designated survivor at Donald Trump’s last State of the Union address, Sonny Perdue, bears the same portfolio as MacAulay: Agriculture.