Prime Minister Carney unveils major cabinet overhaul with two dozen new faces
Carney's ministry includes 24 new people — and 13 of them were just elected
Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a major overhaul of his cabinet Tuesday as he looks to remake the Liberals in his image and turn the page on the last government.
Carney's new ministry, which includes 28 cabinet ministers and 10 secretaries of state from every province and the North, includes some old hands but is largely composed of new faces who have either never sat in cabinet before or were just elected to the House of Commons late last month.
In total, Carney has hand-picked 24 new people — 13 of them just elected — to serve as full cabinet ministers or secretaries of state, a long-dormant ministerial designation Carney is reviving.
Speaking to reporters after the swearing-in ceremony, Carney pitched the cabinet overhaul as a nod to Canadians' desire for change after nearly 10 years under his predecessor, former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
"Our government will deliver its mandate for change with urgency and determination. We're going to deliver on that mandate with a new team, purpose-built for this hinge moment in Canada's history," he said, noting half the ministry is new and will come to the table with "fresh perspectives."
"That's a tremendous amount of change," he said. "Half and half — for me, it's perfect."
He said this smaller, "more focused" cabinet will "operate with a commitment to true cabinet government," with ministers empowered to make decisions without going to the Prime Minister's Office for approval at every turn.
Carney said this structure will help the government deliver on its ambitious agenda — which includes, he reiterated today, getting a new trade deal with the U.S., boosting a sluggish economy by dismantling internal trade barriers, pushing through a middle-class tax cut by Canada Day to address affordability concerns, speeding up home construction, reining in crime and building major infrastructure projects of "national significance."
"We've been elected to do a job and we intend to do it quickly and forcefully," Carney said. "We have to address this crisis with the Americans and we have to address the very real challenges with our economy and we will do just that."
As part of the push to rejuvenate the front bench, Carney is elevating critics of Trudeau such as MPs Wayne Long and Joël Lightbound while removing some ministers who served under his predecessor, such as Bill Blair, Jonathan Wilkinson and Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, as he tries to show voters that things are changing in Ottawa on his watch.
Tim Hodgson, a seasoned Toronto-area business executive who also worked with Carney during his tenure at the Bank of Canada, will serve as the minister of natural resources and energy, replacing Wilkinson.
Former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson will be Carney's new housing minister. Mandy Gull-Masty, a former Cree grand chief in northern Quebec, is the new Indigenous Services minister while Rebecca Alty, the past mayor of Yellowknife, becomes the Crown-Indigenous relations minister.
Shafqat Ali, of Brampton, Ont., is taking over as president of the Treasury Board. Former journalist Evan Solomon takes on a newly created role as minister of artificial intelligence. Nova Scotia MP Lena Metlege Diab will be the immigration minister.
Champagne, LeBlanc stay put
Still, there is some overlap between the Trudeau and Carney ministries because the former central banker did not have a lot of time to recruit many candidates of his own, given it's been only two months since he won the leadership, was first sworn in and then won a mandate.
Carney also weighed experience and continuity when deciding who will fill some of the more senior roles — but some of these experienced operators are not staying in the jobs they held previously.
François-Philippe Champagne stays on as finance minister, while adding national revenue to his portfolio, a sign the longtime minister has earned the trust of the economically focused Carney.
Dominic LeBlanc retains responsibility for Canada-U.S. trade and Ottawa's dealings with the provinces as intergovernmental affairs minister. He has developed connections to the Trump administration and the premiers at this crucial moment.
But Anita Anand moves to foreign affairs, replacing Mélanie Joly who will be Canada's new industry minister. Gary Anandasangaree is leaving justice — he will be replaced by former minister Sean Fraser in that role — for public safety. David McGuinty no longer has that portfolio and he goes to national defence.
Steven MacKinnon, an experienced parliamentarian, trades the jobs and families portfolio to become the leader of the government in the House — a crucial role as he's responsible for the legislative agenda and counting votes to get bills through Parliament without a Liberal majority. Patty Hajdu, who has been the Indigenous Services minister for the last four years, picks up where MacKinnon left off at jobs.
Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau's former deputy, will stay on as transport and internal trade minister, a role she got when Carney announced his first interim cabinet in March.
Steven Guilbeault, perhaps best known for his past work in the environment portfolio, will retain responsibility for Canadian identity and culture. Julie Dabrusin, a backbencher who was first elected in 2015 and trounced her NDP opponent in former leader Jack Layton's old riding in the April vote, has been elevated to cabinet and takes over at environment.
Joly told CBC's Power & Politics she had several conversations with Carney and requested the move to industry because she wanted a big economic portfolio and to spend more time in Canada.
"I asked for this position. I wanted to come back home, and go back to my roots. I'm a businesswoman before going into politics and also I was the minister of economic development," she said. "I ran in politics to do big things. And right now the number-one issue for the country is the economy."
Some of the MPs who were promoted to cabinet by Carney just weeks ago in that shuffle, including Arielle Kayabaga, Kody Blois and Ali Ehsassi, have been left out this time.
Toronto-area MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who was put into cabinet by Trudeau in late December after Freeland's shock resignation, also didn't make the cut.
In a social media post, Erskine-Smith said "it's impossible not to feel disrespected" by being shuffled out of the housing and infrastructure portfolios and cabinet entirely.
"The way it played out doesn't sit right," he said.
Tiered cabinet model
Carney is going with a sort of tiered model of cabinet — with ministers responsible for bigger portfolios and then secretaries of state holding more junior roles.
This will allow for the ministers to meet frequently and deal with central government issues — a more nimble arrangement so that the new prime minister could conceivably get things done faster.
The secretaries of state will be responsible for some key issues and priorities — Brampton-area MP Ruby Sahota will be focused on combating crime, for example, and B.C. MP and former Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Stephen Fuhr will tackle defence procurement.
Those two and the others will occasionally be invited to cabinet and cabinet committee meetings for items related to their responsibilities.
Carney is building a team to take on U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariffs and help prop up a faltering Canadian economy as the country grapples with higher joblessness amid tremendous trade uncertainty.
Beyond LeBlanc's focus on Canada-U.S. trade and Freeland's mandate to knock down internal trade barriers, Brampton MP Maninder Sidhu will serve as Carney's international trade minister — one of three ministers or secretaries of state from that growing suburb.
The prime minister is also dealing with restlessness in Western Canada as some of the region's leaders, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, urge the federal government to be more friendly to their interests, namely fast-tracking natural resource development, after a period of perceived hostility under Trudeau.
Eleanor Olszewski, who just won a seat in central Edmonton, is the sole minister from Alberta and is responsible for emergency management. Saskatchewan doesn't have a full cabinet minister but MP Buckley Belanger will represent that province as the secretary of state with a focus on a rural development.
Central Canada is well-represented in this 28-member cabinet with 11 of the full ministers from Ontario — or 12 of 29 if you include Carney himself — and seven from Quebec.
There are two ministers from B.C. and Nova Scotia and one each from Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and P.E.I.
'More of the same,' says Poilievre
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said retaining some of the Trudeau-era ministers shows that "it's more of the same when Canada needs real change" and the new additions are "problematic."
He said Robertson was Vancouver's mayor when housing prices spiked, and that Fraser presided over "uncontrolled population growth" when he managed the immigration file.
"If this is the new blood that Mr. Carney is bringing into the cabinet, then, sadly, for Canadians, nothing is going to change and the role of a Conservative Party will be more important than ever," he said.
But Poilievre said his party may be willing to back the Liberals on some things.
"I think it was Lincoln who said, 'I stand with a man when he stands right and I stand against him when he stands wrong,'" Poilievre said. "We'll see what he does."
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