Now, I know the names don’t mean much to non-pol watchers, but as they relate to Canada’s various challenges they matter.
So, the above-the-fold stuff for me:
Hussen is out as Housing. He presided on housing through the abrupt rise in tent-cities here in Ontario, skyrocketing rents, etc. There’s plenty of egg on his face, so it’s nice to see the PMO reacting. Sean Fraser, formerly Min of Immigration, takes it. Hope he can make something of it.
Mendicino is out of Public Safety. Regardless of how you feel about the Bernardo prisoner transfer scandal or the expanded firearms ban that occurred under him, it’s hard to deny that he bungled both.
On firearms, he had broad support for the pistol and assault-weapon ban C-21 until he overreached and had to walk it back after getting pummeled in the press for months. On Bernardo he was asleep at the switch and had no idea what was going on.
Good luck to Dominic LeBlanc, the new Minister of Public Safety.
I’m very glad Hussein is out but I don’t know if Sean Fraser will do a good job. His previous role as immigration minister let the country consistently exceed its immigration targets, which only made the housing crisis worse. He’ll be looking into the consequences of his own actions on housing.
He already refrained from building more houses directly and “subsidizing”, not investing, “below-market” housing instead, so that’s not a good sign already.
From a structural standpoint, merging housing and infrastructure into a single ministry makes sense. These two issues go hand in hand.
Failed at her duty by wasting taxpayer’s money by sending public servants back in offices instead of getting rid of all rented real estate thus requiring all employees to have equipment for when they work from home AND equipment in the offices for when they need to go back.
