Prime Minister Carney is ruining Cabinet.
His political instincts are impaired.
As of today, Mark Carney has been sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Canada, chairing the 30th Canadian Ministry. And as he promised, he has significantly slashed the size of his cabinet, going from thirty-seven ministers in Trudeau’s cabinet down to twenty-four ministers in his own.
Mind you, that’s a bit larger than the fifteen to twenty range that has bounced around the media this past week. But the choices that Carney made to reach this arbitrary figure, and the people he placed into many of these roles, deeply concern me.
In order to cut the number of ministers, Carney has forced many members of his new cabinet to take on multiple unrelated portfolios. Ministers need to be able to focus on their portfolio, and very few are competent enough to focus on multiple portfolios at the same time.
The Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food has now been merged with the Minister of Rural Economic Development. The Minister of Canadian Heritage is now taking on responsibility for the entirety of Parks Canada. The Labour and Families portfolios, completely unrelated, have been smashed together unceremoniously.
There are some good mergers, however, and I’ll give credit where credit is due. It makes sense to merge International Development into Foreign Affairs, but I question why they would not also merge it with International Trade, which is instead given to the minister responsible for relations with the provinces and territories.
And the Ministers of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness are now a single ministry, which has obvious synergy. So I do not question the idea of merging portfolios when they have overlap; I do question how you can merge portfolios that have none.
But things get significantly worse when we look at the ministries that have been obliterated entirely. Again, there are some understandable removals here. Citizen’s Services fits under Public Services, Mental Health fits under Health, and both Sport and Tourism fit under Canadian Culture.
The Associate Minister positions are a sinecure that are unnecessary considering these ministers already have parliamentary secretaries that fill the same role of being the No. 2 MP to their minister. And it was completely unnecessary to create seven ministers for each of the Federal Economic Development Agencies.
These are not the removals, or mergers, that concern me. What does concern me is that Mark Carney has removed the Minister of Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities. He has removed the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth. And he has removed the Minister of Seniors, and the Minister of Official Languages.
I give Prime Minister Carney no benefit of the doubt in this regard. He is a rich white straight man who has abolished the ministries that support women, youth, seniors, queer people, disabled people, and Francophones.
This is unacceptable. These are not optional, unless you believe that equality is optional. And it appears that Mark Carney does believe that his primary focus is on helping the wealthy become wealthier, at the cost of everyone who isn’t like him.
When you exclude Mr. Carney from the total in Cabinet, there are twelve men, and eleven women. When you consider that gender parity could have easily been achieved by simply having a Minister for Women and Gender Equality, it becomes obvious that Carney explicitly chose to not have gender parity in his cabinet, and that’s pathetic!
Many of the faces in cabinet are the same, as a result of Mr. Carney opting against picking Senators or private citizens to become ministers. I find this short-sighted, as there are surely some talented individuals who would have been more than qualified, and if Prime Minister Carney doesn’t need to be an MP, why should they?
Chrystia Freeland remains in cabinet, but she will now take on the Transport and Internal Trade portfolios. I look forward to criticizing her over the poor state of VIA Rail and the slow progress on the Alto high-speed rail network.
Steven Guilbeault is removed from the Environment portfolio, which I hate because it was the best role for him; Trudeau limited his ability to fight climate change, and now Carney blocks him from doing so entirely. Instead, he helms up the Canadian Culture and Identity and Parks Canada portfolios, while also serving as the Québec Lieutenant.
I question why Jean-Yves Duclos was not selected for the Lieutenant role, or for any role. The same question applies to Karina Gould, who was Mark Carney’s progressive challenger in the leadership race and the only one to hold his feet to the fire during the two leadership debates.
Ms. Gould served as Government House Leader and numerous other cabinet roles, but more importantly she was a standard-bearer in the leadership race for progressive voters who did not want to see the Liberal Party abandon the left. Her exclusion from cabinet is a pointed signal from Mr. Carney that progressives will be abandoned.
I am happy to see Nate Erskine-Smith remain on the Housing portfolio, as he’s acting much more aggressively to build homes than his predecessors. I am not happy to see Mélanie Joly continuing in the Foreign Affairs portfolio, as she has failed to respond to America’s threats with the necessary strength, and she has refused to sanction members of the Israeli government involved in the Palestinian genocide.
But what truly pains my heart is to see Steven MacKinnon continue on the Labour portfolio, now with additional power over social services for families and those with disabilities.
As I have written previously, Mr. MacKinnon is an unionbusting dog, and it is almost a guarantee that Mark Carney will order him to repeatedly violate workers rights. Even the very name of the ministry has changed, from the pro-worker “Labour” to the pro-capital “Jobs”. The former emphasizes the worker, and the latter emphasizes what capitalists take from the worker.
On the final note, Marc Miller is bounced out of cabinet, which I approve of considering his racist refugee policy that welcomes hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians but only 645 Palestinians.
In his stead, he is replaced by…Rachel Bendayan, who has even stronger anti-Palestine views than Marc Miller did. I have little faith that Canada’s refugee policy will become more welcoming. On the contrary, I fear we have re-embraced “one is too many”, and abandoned “never again”.
I really don’t like this cabinet. I’m upset with many of the people that Carney picked, and the people that he didn’t pick. But most of all, I’m upset with the way that this rich white dude treats diversity as disposable, and the way that he attacked reporters today for asking basic questions.
In conclusion? Progressive Canadians should strap in tight. This ride is going to be a bumpy one.
This cabinet is intended to carry us to the upcoming election and may very well be changed thereafter. Representation from the provinces and other "indirect messages" are equally important for the general electorate. That said, the threat from South of our border makes it very important to have continuity in those that have negotiations with US counterparts. Chill! Poillieve is the big threat, not Mark Carney. He may form a more centrist government but he has made it clear that he has strong Canadian values.
Instead of bashing Carney and his cabinet off the day it was formed, why not attack the real danger to Canada, Pierre Poilievre?