Mi'kmaw MP Jaime Battiste, seen here outside the House of Commons in October, was not appointed to cabinet Friday. Photo: Mark Blackburn/APTN.
Mi’kmaw Liberal MP Jaime Battiste was shut out of a cabinet shuffle on Friday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Battiste, who was first elected in 2019 in the riding of Sydney-Victoria in Nova Scotia, is currently the parliamentary secretary to the minister of Crown Indigenous Relations.
In 2023, Battiste fought a change in his riding boundaries that removed the two Mi’kmaq communities. One of them was Eskasoni where Battiste lives.
Battiste was also a staunch supporter of Randy Boissonnault, a former Liberal cabinet minister who resigned over questions of his Indigeneity and an Edmonton business that he co-owned.
Battiste wasn’t immediately available for comment.
On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau added eight fresh faces to his cabinet. There are no Indigenous members of cabinet.
Trudeau moved to bolster his struggling government by plugging gaps in his front bench after several cabinet ministers decided not to run in the election next year, though he did not move the major players on his team.
The prime minister is lifting from his backbench Brampton, Ont. MP Ruby Sahota, St. John’s, N.L. MP Joanne Thompson and Sherbrooke, Que. MP Élisabeth Brière.
The new appointments also include Montreal MP Rachel Bendayan, Winnipeg MP Terry Duguid, Toronto MP Nate Erskine-Smith, Ottawa MP David McGuinty and Nova Scotia MP Darren Fisher.
Trudeau’s government was dealt a massive blow by the surprise loss of Chrystia Freeland as finance minister earlier this week.
Losing Freeland quickly revived and amplified calls from within the Liberal caucus for Trudeau to step down for the good of his party.
Former cabinet minister Jody Wilson Raybould, who was fired by Trudeau for refusing to get involved in a case against SNC Lavalin in her role as attorney general, has been active on social media calling for Trudeau to step down.
“Sure shuffle the cabinet to fill vacancies. But given our turbulent times, we need a government with a mandate,” she wrote on X. Justin Trudeau, if you love Canada and Canadians as you say you do – it is time to step aside.”
Liberal MP Rob Oliphant posed a statement on social media ahead of the shuffle saying party faithful in his riding told him Trudeau has “become a key obstacle” to progress on the government’s progressive agenda and its “record of achievements is now at risk.”
Trudeau’s move to shuffle cabinet comes a month ahead of the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump, leaving ministers with new portfolios just a few short weeks to learn their departments inside out.
Gary Anandasangaree adds northern affairs to his job as minister of Crown-Indigenous Affairs, to replace Winnipeg MP Dan Vandal who is leaving cabinet after announcing he won’t seek re-election.
Winnipeg MP Terry Duguid takes on Vandal’s role as minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, and replaces B.C. MP Carla Qualtrough as the sport minister.
Duguid is the only MP from the three Prairie provinces in cabinet.
McGuinty, a longtime Ottawa Liberal MP who has chaired the secretive national security committee of parliamentarians since 2017, is taking on the key role of public safety minister from Dominic LeBlanc, who was moved to finance quickly Monday after Freeland’s abrupt departure.
Bendayan becomes minister of official languages and the associate minister of public safety. Public safety has taken on even more prominence in recent weeks as Canada rushes to beef up border security in response to Trump’s trade threats.
Anita Anand, who has carried both transport and Treasury Board since Pablo Rodriguez left cabinet in September, holds onto the transport role while Ginette Petitpas-Taylor, who has been juggling both employment and veterans affairs, became president of the Treasury Board.
Steven MacKinnon adds employment to his file and maintains the labour post.
Brière replaces outgoing Liberal MP Marie-Claude Bibeau as national revenue minister.
Sahota becomes minister of democratic institutions and responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for southern Ontario, replacing Filomena Tassi, while Thompson takes on the seniors portfolio.
Trudeau said earlier this year he has been courting former central banker Mark Carney to join his government in a top role and tapped him as a special economic adviser to the Liberal party, but LeBlanc doused cold water on the idea of Carney becoming finance minister this week.
Just before Trudeau moved to shore up his front bench on Friday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh declared he is finally ready to vote down the government and will attempt to trigger an election in the new year.
Singh vowed he will attempt to bring down the government in a vote of no confidence once Parliament resumes in the new year, although he waited until the House of Commons had adjourned for the holidays to take this position and had prevented the government from falling throughout the fall sitting.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet also recently said he believes Canadians should go to the polls in the new year as the country faces president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats.
Parliament won’t return until Jan. 27, and Singh may not even get his chance until March.
With files from the Canadian Press
