With southwestern Ontario losing a key cabinet voice at Queen's Park — now what?

In a move that took many off guard, Ontario Conservative Monte McNaughton stepped down on Friday to take a job in the private sector.

He was the province's labour minister — focusing much of his work on job shortages and encouraging more young people to get into the skilled trades. McNaughton served the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding as its MPP for 12 years.

The surprise resignation was the third cabinet minister to vacate their post in a short period of time.

This most recent resignation also leaves a big chunk of southwestern Ontario without someone sitting around the cabinet table — with Sarnia-Lambton, Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex not represented. 

Political science professor Lydia Miljan says it helps constituents to have a voice at the table where decisions are being made.

"When you talk to former politicians and current politicians, they usually say, 'Oh, it doesn't matter if you're in cabinet. We're all working for the betterment of the entire province.' But yet I recall when we had two cabinet ministers [Sandra Pupatello and Dwight Duncan] in the city, we got a lot of love from the Liberal government at the time," said Miljan.

The University of Windsor professor says the Windsor-Essex region has looked to McNaughton to champion regional issues.

"There's a political saying, 'If you're not invited for dinner, you are the dinner.' And so it's important to be at the table because there's only so much money to go around. There's only so much attention that a government can take."

According to Miljan, the point of being in cabinet is to have portfolios to work with, but to also have the ear of the people who make the ultimate decisions, which is typically the finance minister and the premier. 

"The closer you can get to that inner circle, the more likely you're able to convince those who hold the actual power that your region or your project needs that much more attention."

Miljan says while McNaughton's resignation does come amidst the Greenbelt scandal, it's important to take him at his word that he's jumping into the private sector for other reasons. She refers to it as "unfortunate timing."

He probably always intended for that announcement to happen, says Miljan, then the other political events happened, enabling some people to conflate the two. 

"He says it's not because of this. He might have had a very nice offer from the private sector. I mean, we do have to acknowledge that public life is difficult. You're away from your family. There's the travel. And so you wouldn't want to deprive somebody if they got a better offer."

Windsor–Tecumseh Conservative MPP Andrew Dowie says McNaughton was looking for better work life balance, "probably a better paycheque," and better hours.

"He's got kids that are growing up pretty fast," said Dowie. 

"I always question how people with kids do it. I don't have kids and I find it a struggle to actually manage work life balance because you have so many commitments. I understand fully why minister McNaughton would want to have a path forward that involves putting family first and foremost because he's been without them and done without them for so many years. 

In a statement issued at the time of McNaughton's Friday resignation, he said, "It has been the honour of a lifetime to serve the people of Ontario as Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training, and Skills Development for more than four years."

Dowie points to Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack as someone who could take the spot of Monte McNaughton when it comes to voicing concerns on behalf of all of southwestern Ontario.

During Friday's cabinet reshuffling, Flack was named Ontario's new associate minister of housing.

"We hit it off … I'm delighted to have him at the cabinet table. But I can tell you … there is no hierarchy here at the Ontario government. When I have an issue I can escalate it to the cabinet minister. I've built those relationships … I call them and we discuss the local issue and if it needs to be the premier, I'll bring it to the premier."

As for whether she believes other current Conservative MPPs in the Windsor, Sarnia or Chatham areas have what it takes to eventually grab a cabinet post — Miljan says only time will tell.

"It's hard to speculate right now, given that Premier Ford hasn't promoted anyone from this area, it signifies that he doesn't think anybody here is ready for it."

Miljan says a lot goes into creating a cabinet, including geography and gender balance — and what portfolio fits for each person's skills.

"There's a lot of things that go into it. If we could show that we have strong MPPs that could rise up the ranks and, you know, still early in their mandate, there still could be a couple more cabinet reshuffles to go around where, you know, someone like Andrew Dowie has a chance."

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