LeBlanc hints at interest in Fisheries

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal House leader appears to be publicly lobbying for a change of cabinet portfolios.

Dominic LeBlanc, who has the critical job of shepherding the new government’s agenda through the House of Commons, recently added the Fisheries portfolio as a result of the sudden departure of Hunter Tootoo to deal with addiction issues.

At a World Oceans Day summit Wednesday in Ottawa, LeBlanc made what sounded to some like a very public pitch to make fisheries his full-time job.

“I was humbled but also excited by the opportunity it presents me and — you’ll forgive me for saying this at the beginning of my mandate — to follow in the footsteps of my father, who held not an identical job but a similar job over 30 years ago,” LeBlanc told the audience.

Romeo LeBlanc was a minister in the former Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau, and in 1979 was named the first federal minister of “fisheries and oceans.”

“Well I hope 40 years later, when somebody looks back on whatever time I will have the privilege of leading this department, the legacy for me I hope is defined by the work I can do with all of you on protecting and preserving our oceans, the ecosystems in our oceans, and leaving a legacy and a footprint that would inspire the people in this room and those whom your represent,” said the younger LeBlanc.

The Conservative opposition has served notice that it believes LeBlanc is unfit for Fisheries, as well the Coast Guard, due to his personal ties to the Irving family in New Brunswick.

LeBlanc had agreed to recuse himself from cabinet decisions involving Irving interests after consulting federal ethics commissioner Mary Dawson.