After avoiding journalists for a whole week of political crisis in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will announce Friday who, among his Liberal troops, still has his confidence to form the new council of ministers and manage the return to power of the future US President Donald Trump on January 20.
A reshuffling of the team of Liberal ministers had become necessary after a year which saw no fewer than nine ministers leave the cabinet. In particular, the surprise departure of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Monday gave new life to the revolt of Liberal backbenchers, more and more of whom are publicly demanding the resignation of their leader.
Justin Trudeau has canceled all his end-of-year interviews with the media. Some of his ministers did not rush in front of the cameras to reiterate their support for him either. However, the Liberal leader didn’t let anything show during a speech delivered with a smile in front of his MPs and political employees, during the Liberal Christmas party on Tuesday evening. He compared the discontent against him to a family dispute, and said nothing to suggest that he intended to resign.
At the dawn of an election year in Canada and one month before the formation of a new Trump government in the United States, the prime minister in difficulty in his own party faces decisive choices for the country. Overview.
Who will be responsible for the border?
Responsibility for Public Security should be removed from the Acadian Minister, Dominic LeBlanc, confirmed to Duty different sources familiar with the matter. This close friend of Justin Trudeau, also responsible for Intergovernmental Affairs and Democratic Institutions, was entrusted with an even more important mission on Monday: he had to replace Minister Freeland, Finance, at short notice, the very day of her resignation and the release of a government economic update.
Minister LeBlanc was present at the Thanksgiving dinner shared by Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump at the end of November. His mission was to reassure the next president that Canada was taking his border protection fears seriously. His successor will have to implement the detailed plan presented Tuesday, which includes helicopters, drones and more than a hundred new agents to monitor the world’s longest land border.
Who should manage Trump?
The Government of Canada could create a minister responsible for the relationship between Canada and the United States. This new position, devoid of any real ministry, was offered to Chrystia Freeland last Friday, various sources confirmed. This is precisely the reason for the resignation of the number two in the government, who preferred to leave the cabinet rather than be transferred from Finance, she wrote in a deadly resignation letter shared on social networks.
Shortly before the first Trump government took office in 2017, Chrystia Freeland was named Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. She thus led Canadian diplomacy during part of this first mandate, marked by a renegotiation of the free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico. Eight years later, re-elected for a second term, Donald Trump applauded the departure of the minister, of whom he alleges “toxic behavior”. He also threatened the imposition of 25% tariffs on Canadian imports and alluded at least six times to his country’s upcoming annexation of Canada.
Verra-t-on Mark Carney ?
Unelected and currently economic advisor to the Liberal Party, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney will not become Finance Minister on Friday, even though the job was offered to him, according to daily sources The Globe and Mail. “Mr. Carney is not on the verge of becoming Minister of Finance in the short term,” confirmed the man who has held this position for just a few days, Dominic LeBlanc, during a press briefing held Thursday in New York. Brunswick.
Despite the surprise of having learned that he would replace Mme Freeland just hours before his emergency swearing in on Monday, Dominic LeBlanc swears that he was asked to prepare the 2025 budget, also the last that the Trudeau government will be able to present before the next federal election. If the government maintains the confidence of Parliament until the spring, it will have the difficult task of finding at least one opposition party ready to support this budget, in the context where even its former ally, the New Democratic Party (NDP), is now calling for the resignation of Justin Trudeau.
What place for Quebec and women?
A reshuffle remains a delicate exercise for the Prime Minister, who is committed to forming parity governments while seeking geographic balance. Among the 19 men and 19 women appointed during the last major cabinet reshuffle, in 2023, nine ministers were from Quebec. Steven MacKinnon was added along the way, to replace Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan, who announced his departure this summer.
The Prime Minister will have to think about replacing Housing Minister Sean Fraser, who also announced Monday that he would not run in the next election, citing the need to spend more time with his young children. Earlier this fall, Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez left the Liberal caucus to try his luck as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. Added to this is the departure of the Minister of Employment and Official Languages, Albertan Randy Boissonnault, who left the cabinet in controversy because of changing claims about his indigenous identity. Four other Liberal ministers had already announced their departure, including the Minister of National Revenue, Quebecer Marie-Claude Bibeau.
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