Family duties prompt Bains to leave Liberal cabinet
Federal industry minister won’t run next election
OT TAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lost a key lieutenant in a pre- election cabinet shuffle Tuesday, as Industry Minister Navdeep Bains announced he was stepping down from his post and would not run in the next campaign.
Cabinet ministers who aren’t planning to run again often step down in the final year of a parliament, and Bains departure fuelled already omnipresent election speculation in Ottawa. Trudeau continued to insist his party wasn’t gearing up for a campaign.
Bains, who has held the industry portfolio since 2015, said he wanted to spend more time with his children.
“I’m the son of a cabinet maker that had the opportunity to serve as a cabinet minister. It’s time for me to focus on the most important job I have; being a dad."
Bains said his eldest daughter was in Grade 8 and he realized if he served another term she could be headed to university before he had free time to be home.
Bains was first elected in 2004 and has been in Parliament since, except for the period between 2011 and 2015, when he lost his seat. He was an early supporter of Trudeau’s leadership bid and a key member of cabinet.
Bains was replaced in the industry portfolio by current Foreign Affairs Minister François- Philippe Champagne. Transport Minister Marc Garneau moved into the foreign affairs slot and MP Omar Alghabra became transport minister. Alghabra is an MP from Mississauga, Ont., and the parliamentary secretary to the prime minister.
Winnipeg MP Jim Carr rejoined cabinet, but without portfolio. He continues serving as Special Representative for the Prairies, a post he was given after the 2019 election. Carr was the minister of natural resources in the last Parliament, but stepped down earlier this year after being diagnosed with cancer.
In a nod to the pandemic reality, the ministers were sworn in via Zoom without the usual pomp and circumstance that comes with a ceremony at Rideau Hall. Trudeau, the new ministers and Gov. Gen. Julie Payette gathered on video conference for the ceremony.
Trudeau said Bains contacted him recently and asked to go for a “walk in the snow,” to discuss his future. The prime minister said he was prepared to talk Bains out of leaving, but understood his reasoning.
“As we walked around the grounds of Rideau Hall — physically distanced with masks on — it became very clear that this was the right decision for him, for his family,” Trudeau said. “He’s been in this a long time. He was already well into politics when I got my start.”
Trudeau said he had not polled the rest of his cabinet ministers to see if they intend to run in an election that could happen this year.
“Obviously, in a minority Parliament we don’t control what other political parties say or do, but we will continue to focus on getting Canadians through this pandemic,” he said. “We have an awful lot of work to do and our government is focused on doing that work.”
He added, “But as I’ve been consistently saying we don’t want an election.”
While Trudeau has not directly polled his caucus, Liberal MPS had until last month to file paperwork with the party indicating if they intended to run again. All of the other cabinet ministers indicated they would be running again.
Trudeau said ideally the campaign would not happen until Canada’s vaccination drive was complete.
As industry minister Bains helped with a number of projects that injected government funding towards creating jobs. In October, Bains announced nearly $2 billion towards electric- vehicle production in Oakville, Ont.
His department previously pushed a nearly $1-billion “supercluster” initiative putting government money behind businesses and research institutions designed to boost new industries. During the pandemic, his department spent billions to encourage domestic production of personal protective equipment.
Trudeau cited that as one of Bains major accomplishments, pointing out that while almost no PPE was produced in Canada at the start of the pandemic nearly half of it is now. Bains has been close with Trudeau since the prime minister first considered his bid for the Liberal leadership and was at some of the earliest planning meetings that lead to that run and his eventual election as prime minister.
Garneau said he would be putting special focus on the U. S.- Canada relationship as the Biden administration is sworn in next week.
“We are inextricably linked, whether it’s through trade, whether it’s security or other matters. We are looking forward to working with the new administration under President Joe Biden.”
Trudeau announced Tuesday that the Canada- U. S. border would remain closed for at least another month.
Carr said he hoped to serve as a bridge between the Prairie Provinces and the Trudeau government in his position.
“And I hope to help the prime minister and my cabinet colleagues reach out to the west, reach out to the prairies, let people who live here know how important development of these provinces are for the good of the whole country,” he said.
In 2019, the Liberals already limited numbers in Alberta and Saskatchewan dwindled to the point the party elected no MPS from those provinces and only a handful in Manitoba.