Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is preparing to shuffle his cabinet for a third time this year as four cabinet ministers confirmed to his office that they will not seek re-election in the next campaign.
The losses follow two other ministers who announced in the summer that they also would not run in the general election, and fall at the same time as the Prime Minister is fending off a brewing caucus revolt. The election is scheduled for the fall of 2025 – however, since the Liberals lost the formal support of the NDP, the minority government has become more precarious and a vote could come much sooner.
A senior Liberal source said Thursday that a cabinet shuffle is expected within weeks to replace the outgoing ministers. The source said that no firm date has been set for the changes. It has been typical for the Prime Minister to remove those not seeking re-election from cabinet to ensure that his front bench represents his re-election team.
The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they were not permitted to disclose the private plans.
Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough and Filomena Tassi, minister for the federal economic development agency for Southern Ontario, all announced in social-media posts on Thursday that they would not put their names on the next ballot.
National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau also won’t seek re-election, the senior Liberal source said. Ms. Bibeau’s office declined to comment on the matter, telling The Globe that she was out of the country on a family matter.
All four ministers were first elected as MPs in 2015, when Mr. Trudeau won his first general election and only majority government. They are all keeping their seats until the next campaign.
Rumours that these four ministers were not planning to run again have been circling in Ottawa for months. The fact that it was confirmed just before next week’s caucus meeting led two Liberals to say that they believe the Prime Minister’s Office is trying to rein in the burgeoning revolt by dangling the possibility of a cabinet promotion in front of a disgruntled backbench. The Globe is not identifying them so they could speak without fear of repercussion.
News of the ministers leaving was first reported Thursday by Radio-Canada.
The Globe reported on Wednesday that in the coming days, dissenting Liberal MPs plan to ask the Prime Minister to resign. Sources told The Globe that Liberal caucus members will also make appeals for Mr. Trudeau’s exit directly to the Prime Minister when he meets with his party behind closed doors next Wednesday.
In her announcement, Ms. Tassi thanked the Prime Minister for entrusting her with four ministerial posts over her tenure. “I believed in him in 2015 and I believe in him now,” she said.
In a subsequent interview with The Globe, Ms. Tassi said she supports whatever decision Mr. Trudeau makes on his leadership, but she added that the MPs who have concerns about his tenure “absolutely have the right to voice those concerns in a respectful way.”
But she added that the right venue for that is the Liberal caucus room, where talks are supposed to stay behind closed doors, though she noted that that confidentiality has not been respected by all.
The Hamilton-area MP was given a smaller role in cabinet more than a year ago after she asked the Prime Minister to allow her to spend more time at home to support her husband, who suffered a series of strokes. She said he’s now doing okay.
“My husband has supported me every step of the way,” Ms. Tassi said. “I wouldn’t be where I am now if it wasn’t for his support, and now it’s time for me to be closer to home.”
Mr. Vandal and Ms. Qualtrough did not give specific reasons for their decisions in their public statements, both simply saying that it was “time to move on.”
The Northern Affairs Minister, a Winnipeg-area MP, thanked the Prime Minister in particular for his work with Indigenous people and said, “I fully support your continued leadership as Prime Minister.”
In August, Mr. Vandal strongly criticized Mr. Trudeau’s decision to appoint former conservative broadcaster Charles Adler to the Senate. A government official said the minister raised his concerns at the time directly with the Prime Minister but said it is unrelated to Mr. Vandal’s decision not to seek re-election. The Globe is not identifying the official because they were not permitted to disclose the private discussion.
Ms. Qualtrough, an MP from B.C., did not make mention of Mr. Trudeau’s future in her own statement, but thanked him for his trust.
The Prime Minister has already lost two key members of his cabinet. In July, Mr. Trudeau’s long-time friend, then-labour minister Seamus O’Regan, announced that he wouldn’t seek re-election and resigned immediately from cabinet. He was replaced as minister by Steve MacKinnon.
Then two months later, Mr. Trudeau’s senior Quebec minister, Pablo Rodriguez, quit to run for the provincial Liberal leadership. Mr. Rodriguez was replaced as Transport Minister by Anita Anand, who now holds dual roles in cabinet. She is also Treasury Board President.