01.09.2017 04:15 PM

Cabinet shuffle: open thread

Here’s what Canadian Press says:

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to give his year-old cabinet a facelift on Tuesday.

Sources tell The Canadian Press that the shuffle will involve at least six people.

Those expected to be moved include International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is considered likely to replace Stephane Dion at Foreign Affairs.

Also believed in the mix are Status of Women Minister Patty Hajdu, seen as a strong performer, and Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef — widely criticized for her handling of Trudeau’s promise to reform Canada’s voting system.

Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk is also expected to be moved.

Sources, speaking anonymously because they are not authorized to disclose details publicly, expect at least one new face in cabinet: Francois-Philippe Champagne, currently parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

Baseless speculation is baseless, but it’s fun. I’m on Evan Solomon’s show on CFRA discussing this very subject right now. So add your speculation to comments below!

18 Comments

  1. Andrew says:

    Federal Ministers should not cry when they don’t get their way…Chrystia Freeland will be out.

  2. WDM says:

    Freeland – Foreign Affairs
    Champagne – Trade
    Hajdu – Employment/Labour
    Monsef – Status of Women
    Dion – retirement/ambassadorship
    Mihychuk – Democratic Reform

    All based on some of the names we’ve seen thrown about, which means this could be all BS and none of the names above go anywhere.

    • JamesF says:

      Nah, it’ll be bigger…

      Freeland – Global Affairs
      Champagne – Small Business and Tourism
      Brison – Trade
      Hajdu – Employment/Labour
      Monsef – Status of Women
      Dion – Democratic Reform
      Hehr – Treasury
      Leslie – Veteran Affairs

  3. Dork in East York says:

    Freeland or McKenna to Foreign Affairs, Dion and Monsef demoted to junior portfolios.

  4. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    I can’t help but think back to when your boss demoted his share of ministers and even removed some from cabinet. Those bruises led to a lot of suddenly enthusiastic supporters for change at the top. Sprinkle that pepper carefully Justin.

    • Kelly says:

      But the people who will be demoted are weak and one was even a failed leader. Dion is an Academic and should return there or be given some kind of “Minister without Portfolio” position (remember those?) out of courtesy. In the end people need to be able communicate.

  5. Charlie says:

    I love cabinet talk.

    So, being a Manitoban, I’m gonna start with Mihychuk: She sucks.

    Not many know this outside of the Manitoba political landscape, but people have known for years how abrasive Mihychuk can be. Back when she was a minister in Gary Doer’s MBNDP government, she rubbed a lot people the wrong way and quickly ended up on the outside of Dipper circles in the province. So when she was announced as a Minister back in 2015, lets just say a lot of us were surprised. We knew Jim Carr was a shoo-in for cabinet, but Mihychuk ended up benefiting from the gender balanced promise.

    Mihychuk has been a pest in Ottawa and again has rubbed people the wrong way. Her incessant demand for establishing a regional minister for Manitoba as opposed to handling her ministerial file is what’s put her on the chopping block. I can’t say for sure, but I hear she’ll be straight to the back benches.

    Freeland for GA Minister makes absolute sense. Dion is the last person the Liberals want to be sending to Washington to deal with a Trump administration. Dion should just accept the France ambassadorship and call it a career. Trudeau did his part and made a nice gesture by offering Dion a cabinet seat in the first place, but Dion needs to move out.

    Monsef needs to go. Again, there is too much talent on the benches not to shuffle her out. Keeping her in makes no sense going forward, particularly in her capacity as Democratic Reform Minister.

    Hajdu has been terrific but I don’t know if she’ll change positions. I think she’ll end up picking up more responsibilities, but she’s the absolute perfect person to helm the Status of Women profile with issues like healthcare and MMIW intersecting with her role.

    Marco Mendocino, whether now or before summer, will be in cabinet. He’s too good to leave as a Parl. Sec.

    There are a number of other changes that one could fathom, but I think the main things here are: a) that cabinet is set to grow by at least 2 new ministers by the end of 2017 and b) demoting poor performing ministers to other junior roles would be a bad decision because is rewards poor performance and will piss off the plethora of MPs looking for a shot; this is a perfect recipe for discontentment.

  6. Charlie says:

    I love cabinet talk.

    So, being a Manitoban, I’m gonna start with Mihychuk: She sucks.

    Not many know this outside of the Manitoba political landscape, but people have known for years how abrasive Mihychuk can be. Back when she was a minister in Gary Doer’s MBNDP government, she rubbed a lot people the wrong way and quickly ended up on the outside of Dipper circles in the province. So when she was announced as a Minister back in 2015, lets just say a lot of us were surprised. We knew Jim Carr was a shoo-in for cabinet, but Mihychuk ended up benefiting from the gender balanced promise.

    Mihychuk has been a pest in Ottawa and again has rubbed people the wrong way. Her incessant demand for establishing a regional minister for Manitoba as opposed to handling her ministerial file is what’s put her on the chopping block. I can’t say for sure, but I hear she’ll be straight to the back benches.

    Freeland for GA Minister makes absolute sense. Dion is the last person the Liberals want to be sending to Washington to deal with a Trump admiinistration. Dion should just accept the France ambassadorship and call it a career. Trudeau did his part and made a nice gesture by offering Dion a cabinet seat in the first place, but Dion needs to move out.

    Monsef needs to go. Again, there is too much talent on the benches not to shuffle her out. Keeping her in makes no sense going forward, particularly in her capacity as Democratic Reform Minister.

    Hajdu has been terrific but I don’t know if she’ll change positions. I think she’ll end up picking up more responsibilities, but she’s the absolute perfect person to helm the Status of Women profile with issues like healthcare and MMIW intersecting with her role.

    Marco Mendocino, whether now or before summer, will be in cabinet. He’s too good to leave as a Parl. Sec.

    There are a number of other changes that one could fathom, but I think the main things here are: a) that cabinet is set to grow by at least 2 new ministers by the end of 2017 and b) demoting poor performing ministers to other junior roles would be a bad decision because is rewards poor performance and will piss off the plethora of MPs looking for a shot; this is a perfect recipe for discontentment.

  7. Doris says:

    What is the BS about cabinet shuffles you lose a bunch of nobodies and fill the slots with other nobodies – inside the ball park stuff designed to feed the pundits’ baseless opinions and the CBC’s insatiable need to fill airtime on the National.

  8. Kevin says:

    I wondered why Monsef was being punished by being given Democratic Reform – a rookie minister given a no-win portfolio like that. I’m impressed that she only stumbled as much as she did.

    Dion is a person of A1 integrity and intelligence. It’s too bad his English is so poor – his French is like music. I hope he gets a portfolio where he doesn’t have to be as verbal as in Foreign Affairs.

    Someone not mentioned but who should be, IMO, is Ralph Goodale. He should be gone. A good soldier, reliable and all that. But Bill C-21? He should be thoroughly ashamed of himself for that. We used to feel so superior to those countries whose citizens had to register when they were leaving the country (and therefore out of reach of the Ayatollahs, eg). Now we track Canadians leaving and keep a big database, and we hand it over to the US to boot. Shameful.

  9. dave constable says:

    Freeland is the character who spent a few extra tax dollars to reroute to LA to appear on the Maher talk show. In HoC she explained that while in LA she networked with…then she gave a few big shot names. Turns out the names were of fellow guests on the talk show.
    She double talks TPP, and is prejudiced against Russia ( supposedly she studied the area…looks to me that rather than giving understanding, it added to dislike.) Nevertheless, I can see her promotion, partly to hang on to that Toronto riding. She’ll agree with the Conservative critics on who they vilify.

    A Lib in tech and research (or some such) who I think does a great job, both in his own portfolio, and in other areas, is Navdeep Bains.

    • Sean says:

      Dave, re CF on Russia, she has two degrees in “the area”- is fluent in Russian and a few other languages, including Ukrainian- because that’s her family background. Yes, she has a hate-on for current Russian ways- she’s lived and worked there, written a book on the subject- it’s safe to say she has a good understanding. She’s a very thoughtful, valuable member of the cabinet. She’s my MP and charmed my 8yo daughter with a 10 minute visit at our door during the campaign.
      We loved watching her on Bill Maher, plus her back clips. Concerns re those expenses were the worst of Canadian small-time, petty politics and the kind of thing that scares off smart people like this from public service. She is certainly no Bev Oda! 😉

      I look forward to the shuffle, something else to talk about instead of the goat rodeo to our south.

      • dave constable says:

        Okay, you are closer to her than I. As well, I like Russians and Russian arts, so I am kind of biased about crowding NATO forces onto their borders and the constant scramble to vilify Russia about anything from Syria to Olympics to election meddling. I did wonder about Freeland’s family background, and whether there might be some Eastern European influence on her views.

        Something I think would be useful for us is to work even more closely with Russia (and other Arctic nations that we share an icy and watery border with) on research and choices for development. Russia has done quite a bit in this area and we can benefit from working with them.
        I think, too that challenges regarding shipping lanes and raw resource development from non Arctic nations will increase in coming years, and it is better if we Arctic nations work together to counter this.
        If she goes to Foreign Affairs, I hope she will concentrate on this, and not on some of her Washington pals’ agendas.

  10. bluegreenblogger says:

    I think that the whole point of giving your front bench some rope, is to season them, and get rid of the chaff. So, I expect some seasoning, and some chaff removal. lol. Some new faces, and some out the window, but only rookies will get full on defenestration. Yech, I guess they will invent a couple more mini-ministries.

  11. pat says:

    What will Stephan Dion do? I really liked him – he’s been given a rough ride, but I always liked Dion for his brains, and values – always been one of my favorites and I hope he’s still in the Cabinet.

  12. Robert Frindt says:

    The biggest political problem Trudeau will have with Trump is the defence budget. Canada has a NATO commitment to spending 2% of GDP on defence. In fact, Canada is more than 20 billion per year short, and just cut 1.3 billion in 2017-18.

    Free riding allies not pulling their military weight has been. and is. a major issue for Trump. On this he he also has bipartisan support, as well as the support of Obama.

    If Butts and Telford really had a 5 hour meeting with Bannon and Kushner, they already know this.

    I’m watching the DND portfolio and what the Trudeau gov’t intends to do with NATO.

    • dave constable says:

      For me, Washington decides how and where NATO i sused, and USA industry makes a lot of money off NATO weapons purchases. So I figure USA can pay for it.

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