OTTAWA—Amid continued questions about his leadership, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will shuffle his cabinet Friday.
A senior government source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Trudeau will significantly shuffle his front bench on Friday at 11:30 a.m.
The Star has learned that Ottawa MP David McGuinty will become the public safety minister and Toronto MP Nate Erskine-Smith will take on the housing portfolio.
Erskine-Smith has been an MP since 2015, but has never served as a cabinet minister. He has voted against his own party on several occasions, although he has supported the government on any platform promises and in all confidence votes. He announced publicly that he would not run again.
Last year, he ran for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, coming second to Bonnie Crombie.
The source said the shuffle is expected to address the fallout from several cabinet resignations this fall, as well as recent announcements by ministers who have said they will not be running in next year’s election.
Trudeau has already moved Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc into the finance role after Chrystia Freeland’s resignation from cabinet on Monday. Freeland surprised Ottawa with her decision to step down just hours before she was set to deliver the fall fiscal update.
McGuinty has been an MP since 2004, and held onto his seat even in the 2011 election when the Liberals were reduced to just 34 seats in the House of Commons. He currently serves as chair of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, a committee which has been critical of several of the agencies he will now oversee, including the RCMP, CSIS and CSE. His brother, Dalton, was premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013.
When asked, following Freeland’s departure, if he believed Trudeau was harming the Liberal party’s reputation, McGuinty said it would be a “mistake to underestimate” both the party and the prime minister.
Freeland left Trudeau’s cabinet Monday with a scathing resignation letter, in which she argued the government was overspending and not keeping money available for a widely expected trade war when U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.
“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” Freeland wrote in the letter, which she posted on social media. “That means eschewing costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”
Speaking on the political podcast “The Herle Burly,” LeBlanc said he recognizes the impact Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs would have on Canada, but is confident the government has what it needs to respond.
“I’m reassured that the government has the fiscal room, if there’s a decision that has to be made, to intervene significantly,” he said.
The shuffle will have to deal with much more than the fallout from Freeland’s departure, as several of Trudeau’s ministers have resigned or said they would not seek re-election since his last major cabinet shuffle in July 2023.
In September, Pablo Rodriguez stepped down as transport minister to seek the leadership of the Quebec Liberal party. The transport portfolio was given to Treasury Board President Anita Anand, who has been overseeing both files since then.
Last month, Randy Boissonnault gave up his employment, workforce development and official languages portfolios amid questions about whether he had improperly claimed Indigenous heritage while a business he co-owned sought government contracts. His files were added to Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor’s workload.
On Monday, just prior to Freeland’s resignation, Housing Minister Sean Fraser announced that he would not run again. Earlier this fall, National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough, Southern Ontario Economic Development Minister Filomena Tassi and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal all said they would not seek reelection.
Friday’s shuffle comes amid growing concerns about Trudeau’s leadership. As of Thursday afternoon, 18 Liberal MPs had publicly called on him to resign.
Other than brief remarks at two Liberal holiday parties this week, Trudeau has not addressed those calls and has not spoken to reporters since Freeland’s resignation.
With files from Raisa Patel and Susan Delacourt
