Four more federal cabinet ministers will not run in the next election, Global News has learned, which is expected to prompt another cabinet shuffle in the coming weeks.
The growing exodus is another challenge for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals after more than a year of slumping poll numbers and recent byelection losses in recent weeks, as well as reports of growing internal caucus discontent over the past week.
Filomena Tassi, who serves as minister of economic development for southern Ontario, and Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal both confirmed Thursday they have informed Trudeau of their decision not to run again.
Both ministers were first elected in 2015. Vandal was named northern affairs minister in 2019, while Tassi has served multiple cabinet roles since 2018, including as seniors minister and labour minister.
As well, a senior government source says National Revenue Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Sports Minister Carla Qualtrough — both of whom have been in cabinet since the first Liberal government was elected in 2015 — are also not running for re-election.
Qualtrough had previously told Global News as recently as last week she planned to run again.
The source said all four calls were made “weeks ago” and that they were “planned and personal.”
“The situation is that it’s important that I’m closer to home, so that’s completely what this decision is rooted in,” Tassi told Global News in an interview.
Tassi was shuffled to her most recent cabinet position in 2022 after her husband suffered two strokes the year before, which prompted her request to spend more time in her Southern Ontario riding.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
In a statement posted to social media, Vandal, who is Métis and the only Indigenous person in Trudeau’s cabinet, commended Trudeau for “unmatched” steps the government has taken with Indigenous people toward reconciliation.
“I fully support your continued leadership as Prime Minister,” he wrote.
Two other ministers, Seamus O’Regan and Pablo Rodriguez, resigned from cabinet earlier this year. Seven more MPs have left Parliament entirely, including past cabinet members Carolyn Bennett, David Lametti and Marc Garneau.
With so many cabinet departures, Trudeau will have to draft in more fresh faces from the Liberal backbenches to fill the newly vacant cabinet posts. Many existing cabinet members have been given additional portfolios to juggle.
The departures of Bennett and Lametti led to byelections for their respective Toronto and Montreal-area ridings that the Liberals lost after holding them for decades — further darkening the Liberals’ prospects for the next election.
At least two Liberal MPs have publicly said it’s time for Trudeau to step aside and make way for a new leader. A growing internal revolt is also playing out in private, Global News has also learned, with up to 30 MPs signing a secretive document urging Trudeau to go.
The document has not been signed or even circulated among cabinet ministers, who have unanimously stood by Trudeau in public.
The revolt is expected to be discussed at the next Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday.
One Liberal MP, Chandra Arya, wrote an email this week to caucus viewed by Global News urging his colleagues trying to unseat Trudeau to stop and consider the damage it may create.
“I foresee a vicious battle for leadership which will fracture the fragile party structure with vastly different ideas and personalities,” Arya wrote. “The results will be disastrous.”
The Liberals also had to replace the party’s national campaign director after he resigned last month.
The government has survived two confidence votes put forward by the Conservatives since Parliament returned in mid-September, but the Bloc Québécois has given the Liberals until the end of October to meet its legislative demands or lose its support in future confidence motions.
The Conservatives have vowed to keep introducing matters of non-confidence at every opportunity until the House of Commons breaks for Christmas.
— with additional files from Global’s Bryan Mullan
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
