Cabinet shuffle planned Monday after Guilbeault’s resignation

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney will shuffle his cabinet on Monday after a high-profile resignation last week.

His public itinerary shows that he will be at a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa at 3 p.m.

The move comes days after Steven Guilbeault resigned from his position as minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Quebec lieutenant because of the agreement struck between Ottawa and Alberta which Guilbeault said would erode past climate policies.

A spokeswoman for Carney, Audrey Champoux, said there would not be a “full shuffle.” She also said that a new Quebec lieutenant will be named on Monday.

The position of lieutenant is usually held by a Quebec MP who acts in an advisory role or as a spokesperson for issues specific to the province. As such, that role does not require to be sworn in to cabinet — a Quebec lieutenant is simply appointed to the role.

Carney could also decide to redistribute Guilbeault’s role to existing ministers.

When Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet in September, her roles as minister of transport and minister of internal trade were given to government House leader Steven MacKinnon and to Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc, respectively.

Guilbeault made his first media appearance at Radio-Canada’s weekly talk show “Tout le monde en parle” on Sunday to explain why he decided to leave Carney’s cabinet.

“At some point, you have to be able to look at yourself in the mirror,” said the Montreal MP.

Guilbeault admitted he proposed some changes to the agreement with Alberta, but seeing that those suggestions were rejected, he concluded he could not publicly defend the government’s decision anymore. He said he had no choice but to step down as a minister.

He appeared to fight back tears when asked if he had abandoned the cultural sector with his decision. He said there were still many things he was hoping to accomplish in that area, but that the price to pay to defend a new prospective bitumen pipeline was too high.

Despite those differences of opinion, Guilbeault reiterated his confidence in his leader and said that, if an election were held today, he would still vote for the Liberal Party of Canada.

More to come…

National Post calevesque@postmedia.com

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