Can’t say I see the point of the diatribes here. Carney was elected. He gets to choose his cabinet, and his government lives and dies on those choices.
That said, as a Vancouver resident, I agree that Gregor was a weak choice. Perhaps Carney wants some environmental allies in cabinet.
Don’t understand the hate on Hodgson for energy. Close confidant of Carney from Goldman years that Carney convinced to run in the election. It only signals he’s serious about getting stuff done on that file by putting in a guy who has spent his entire career in those types of high pressure environments.
This Gregor hate is funny: “he’ll have no credibility demanding DCs go down!!” That’s what the money is for, the feds can’t simply demand municipalities stop collecting a tax.
And I’d add that I’m not a NES hater but has he proved delivery competence? He clearly has comms abilities and campaigning abilities, however I was told by people like you that results should now be the objective instead of comms.
The argument against is that you can’t present an ideological anti DC case to convince the public, but frankly that will never be a winning fight in Canada. Your only option is bribery.
on energy and environment - hmm. yea, the environment pick is one that didn't need to be made, and any positives she might bring to the portfolio will predictably be overshadowed by danielle smith's instant tantrum. but the hodgson pick seems to be going over okay (board member at meg is what's being cited over the other parts of his resume, and that negates any laurentian ties), and i don't actually think that hogan would've been the best person there - an alberta liberal dictating energy feels like a no-win proposition across the country. felt similarly when there was some people on twitter pencilling in amarjeet sohi for that spot. but hogan absolutely should've been in cabinet, and giving him industry over joly feels like it would have made a lot more sense.
on housing - understand that you're upset on a personal level, but my layman take is that gregor robertson is a high profile name in one of the two markets that most desperately needs housing reform. nes developed/led the plan that has already been released - you don't necessarily need someone with policy chops anymore, you need someone who loves showing his face and loudly talking about the plan.
freeland sticking around for a largely internal/domestic/doug ford facing position is fine, especially because she is to thank for this cabinet even existing, but absolutely no idea how guilbeault is still kicking around, even for a fluff role.
overall, not disastrous. mandate letters will be very important though.
As we are getting into secretaries of state for various very important issues, couple of thoughts:
A few steady hands from the Trudeau remain, but not too many. Quite a few names that have not proven themselves yet in a governing position. I don’t think there any names that are clearly unqualified.
While we are free to criticize Carney’s choices, it is also true that Carney’s will have hired and fired many more people that the two prime ministers who came before him. Both Harper and Trudeau were never in the position prior to being PM where they had to interview, select, hire and eventually fire significant number of people. Carney will have this experience and I would hope he has selected the various ministers for the right reasons.
Finally, I beleive that the mandate letters will be far more telling than the people picked for the various roles. I am keen to see how action oriented the letters will be, ideally with clearly measurable performance indicators.
Chrystia Freeland staying is very explicable to me, she’s Minister for Buttering Up Doug Ford. He’d absolutely say something negative on-record if the headline was “Freeland fired”.
"Between a Minister for Government Transformation, a Minister for One Canadian Economy, and a Minister for AI and Digital Innovation, Mark Carney is doing DEI for Tech Bros with his Ministry titles." This right here is another example that Carney is not the Serious-Minded Crisis Manager that he portrayed himself to be.
I really thought he would do away with the silly/risible job titles and keep his commitment of a different type of cabinet (in size and quality) than Trudeau's, but nope, that was just spin. But he's lucky - just like with Trudeau, the slip-ups and tells are coming early and often, but they won't matter to the public until we get several more months of this.
Evan you touch on this is in your 11:28am post but I’ll sum it up this way: having Ontario - nay, GTA! - MPs in both the Environment and Energy/NR roles is an absolute disaster. I don’t know wtf they’re thinking. This is going to build zero goodwill with the industry or do anything to stem a brewing unity problem. And I say this as someone who’s lived their entire life in the GTA!
There is no longer a “Minister of Canadian Heritage”?
Will this mean the end of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Heritage committee? Is that too much wishful thinking on my part?
I hope this means the conflict of interest that this generated is gone, and that Broadcast and Copyright policy won’t be put under “Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages”.
Mélanie Joly in Industry concerns me, as she may not have learned from mistakes made at Heritage. Heritage and Industry are regularly at odds with each other on areas of copyright and broadcasting. Heritage regularly wants to manipulate and harm markets as a false alternative to stable Arts funding.
Can’t say I see the point of the diatribes here. Carney was elected. He gets to choose his cabinet, and his government lives and dies on those choices.
That said, as a Vancouver resident, I agree that Gregor was a weak choice. Perhaps Carney wants some environmental allies in cabinet.
Don’t understand the hate on Hodgson for energy. Close confidant of Carney from Goldman years that Carney convinced to run in the election. It only signals he’s serious about getting stuff done on that file by putting in a guy who has spent his entire career in those types of high pressure environments.
This Gregor hate is funny: “he’ll have no credibility demanding DCs go down!!” That’s what the money is for, the feds can’t simply demand municipalities stop collecting a tax.
And I’d add that I’m not a NES hater but has he proved delivery competence? He clearly has comms abilities and campaigning abilities, however I was told by people like you that results should now be the objective instead of comms.
And I suppose he knows how municipal governments deal with housing, which is going to be key implementing the plan.
It seems to me that if one of the biggest issues is getting municipalities on board, knowing how a city government works is a significant asset.
The argument against is that you can’t present an ideological anti DC case to convince the public, but frankly that will never be a winning fight in Canada. Your only option is bribery.
Fraser is an amazing speaker though no? Him and NES and Anita are probably there best speakers
on energy and environment - hmm. yea, the environment pick is one that didn't need to be made, and any positives she might bring to the portfolio will predictably be overshadowed by danielle smith's instant tantrum. but the hodgson pick seems to be going over okay (board member at meg is what's being cited over the other parts of his resume, and that negates any laurentian ties), and i don't actually think that hogan would've been the best person there - an alberta liberal dictating energy feels like a no-win proposition across the country. felt similarly when there was some people on twitter pencilling in amarjeet sohi for that spot. but hogan absolutely should've been in cabinet, and giving him industry over joly feels like it would have made a lot more sense.
on housing - understand that you're upset on a personal level, but my layman take is that gregor robertson is a high profile name in one of the two markets that most desperately needs housing reform. nes developed/led the plan that has already been released - you don't necessarily need someone with policy chops anymore, you need someone who loves showing his face and loudly talking about the plan.
freeland sticking around for a largely internal/domestic/doug ford facing position is fine, especially because she is to thank for this cabinet even existing, but absolutely no idea how guilbeault is still kicking around, even for a fluff role.
overall, not disastrous. mandate letters will be very important though.
As we are getting into secretaries of state for various very important issues, couple of thoughts:
A few steady hands from the Trudeau remain, but not too many. Quite a few names that have not proven themselves yet in a governing position. I don’t think there any names that are clearly unqualified.
While we are free to criticize Carney’s choices, it is also true that Carney’s will have hired and fired many more people that the two prime ministers who came before him. Both Harper and Trudeau were never in the position prior to being PM where they had to interview, select, hire and eventually fire significant number of people. Carney will have this experience and I would hope he has selected the various ministers for the right reasons.
Finally, I beleive that the mandate letters will be far more telling than the people picked for the various roles. I am keen to see how action oriented the letters will be, ideally with clearly measurable performance indicators.
I’m excited about his cabinet and glad to see some ministers back. I’m happy to have a party with credentials unlike our provincial minions
Former MP Pierre Poilievre is about to speak about the new cabinet…
ErskIne-Smith wasn't “fired”.
Yep, because all the arm chair politicians obviously know more about cabinet picks than Carney and his ministry.
Chrystia Freeland staying is very explicable to me, she’s Minister for Buttering Up Doug Ford. He’d absolutely say something negative on-record if the headline was “Freeland fired”.
"Between a Minister for Government Transformation, a Minister for One Canadian Economy, and a Minister for AI and Digital Innovation, Mark Carney is doing DEI for Tech Bros with his Ministry titles." This right here is another example that Carney is not the Serious-Minded Crisis Manager that he portrayed himself to be.
I really thought he would do away with the silly/risible job titles and keep his commitment of a different type of cabinet (in size and quality) than Trudeau's, but nope, that was just spin. But he's lucky - just like with Trudeau, the slip-ups and tells are coming early and often, but they won't matter to the public until we get several more months of this.
All elected to achieve PM goals.. so the “what” has been litigated.
Evan you touch on this is in your 11:28am post but I’ll sum it up this way: having Ontario - nay, GTA! - MPs in both the Environment and Energy/NR roles is an absolute disaster. I don’t know wtf they’re thinking. This is going to build zero goodwill with the industry or do anything to stem a brewing unity problem. And I say this as someone who’s lived their entire life in the GTA!
There is no longer a “Minister of Canadian Heritage”?
Will this mean the end of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Heritage committee? Is that too much wishful thinking on my part?
I hope this means the conflict of interest that this generated is gone, and that Broadcast and Copyright policy won’t be put under “Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture and Minister responsible for Official Languages”.
https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2025/05/13/prime-minister-announces-new-ministry
https://r.flora.ca/p/canadian-heritage
Mélanie Joly in Industry concerns me, as she may not have learned from mistakes made at Heritage. Heritage and Industry are regularly at odds with each other on areas of copyright and broadcasting. Heritage regularly wants to manipulate and harm markets as a false alternative to stable Arts funding.
Time will tell. She has always run a tight ship with her staff so I expect will be a good manager and get things done. Which is Carney’s expectation.
"get things done" -- I think *what* someone is doing is more important than how efficiently they do it.