The Washington Post

Key posts shuf­fled in cab­i­net re­struc­tur­ing

- European Politics · Canada News · Politics · Elections · Justin Trudeau · Pierre Trudeau · Marc Garneau · Omar Alghabra · Navdeep Bains

Cana­dian Prime Min­is­ter Justin Trudeau shuf­fled his cab­i­net on Tues­day and made the first Cana­dian to soar into space his for­eign min­is­ter.

For­mer as­tro­naut Marc Garneau moves from the role as trans­port min­is­ter, while François-philippe Cham­pagne, who be­came for­eign min­is­ter in Novem­ber 2019, be­comes min­is­ter of in­no­va­tion, science and in­dus­try. Omar Al­ghabra be­comes trans­port min­is­ter.

Navdeep Bains, who was min­is­ter of in­no­va­tion, science and in­dus­try, has de­cided not to run in the next elec­tion. Trudeau has said that key cab­i­net po­si­tions should be held by min­is­ters who in­tend to be around for the long haul and can sell the govern­ment’s agenda dur­ing the next elec­tion cam­paign.

Trudeau’s Lib­eral Party won re­elec­tion in 2019 but does not have a ma­jor­ity of seats in Par­lia­ment and must rely on at least one op­po­si­tion party to re­main in power, so it needs to re­main po­si­tioned for a po­ten­tial quick elec­tion. Trudeau said he would pre­fer not to have an elec­tion un­til af­ter most Cana­di­ans are vac­ci­nated amid the coro­n­avirus pan­demic, mak­ing a spring elec­tion un­likely.

Trudeau, mean­while, an­nounced that nonessen­tial travel across the U.s.-canada land bor­der will re­main banned un­til at least Feb. 21.

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