Sean Fraser, Minister of Housing | Trudeau loses another minister from his cabinet

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will lose another minister. Housing Minister Sean Fraser has no plans to run for office in the next election.

Recognized as one of the Trudeau government’s best communicators, and considered by some as a possible candidate in the next race for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, Sean Fraser cites family reasons for leaving the federal political scene, confirmed to The Press two government sources.

Mr. Fraser and his partner have two young children aged eight and three.

The news of his departure, which was first reported by the CBC network, will force Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to fundamentally reshuffle his cabinet while federal elections loom on the horizon. This reshuffle could take place as early as Wednesday, according to sources cited by CBC and The Globe and Mail.

Sean Fraser’s decision to leave federal politics comes as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his close aides are stepping up efforts to convince former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to formally join the government by becoming minister.

The post of Minister of Finance was reportedly offered to him, according to information circulating in recent days.

First elected in 2015 in the riding of Central Nova, Mr. Fraser has represented the province of Nova Scotia at the cabinet table since October 2021. He served as Minister of Immigration for two years before being transferred at the Ministry of Housing during a cabinet reshuffle in July 2023. He has also worked to learn French over the past three years.

A ministerial reshuffle was already on the cards by mid-January. Justin Trudeau was expected to make new appointments to his cabinet to replace four ministers who had already indicated their intention not to run for office in the next election. They are the Minister of National Revenue, Marie-Claude Bibeau, the Minister of Northern Affairs, Dan Vandal, the Minister of Sports and Physical Activity, Carla Qualtrough, and the Minister of the Federal Agency of economic development for Southern Ontario, Filomena Tassi.

Two other ministers have also left the cabinet in recent weeks: the Minister of Transport, Pablo Rodriguez, who is running for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party, and the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and -of Official Languages, Randy Boissonnault, who resigned amid controversy after falsely claiming to have Indigenous roots.