17 juillet 2018 – Telegraph Journal

EXPERT: LEBLANC LIKELY TO BE PROMOTED IN CABINET SHUFFLE

ADAM HURAS PARLIAMENT HILL

Dominic LeBlanc

OTTAWA • Dominic LeBlanc is likely to be promoted to a file that will give him national reach in a looming federal cabinet shuffle that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is reportedly poised to unveil later this week, says one of New Brunswick’s foremost public policy experts.

Donald Savoie, the Canada Research Chair in Public Administration and Governance at Université de Moncton, says that Trudeau needs LeBlanc’s voice behind a bigger podium ahead of the next federal election.

Savoie’s comments come as Evan Solomon, host of CTV’s Question Period, citing unnamed sources, reported that Le-Blanc and Heritage Minister Melanie Joly are expected to be given new positions within cabinet.

A cabinet shuffle is expected on Wednesday.

The Beauséjour MP and long-time friend of Trudeau has already changed portfolios twice since the Trudeau government took office in 2015.

LeBlanc was initially given the prominent role of House leader in an original cabinet, but he then took over the role that once belonged to his father, Roméo LeBlanc, who was Minister of Fisheries and Oceans under the Pierre Trudeau Liberals.

He has remained in that position since 2016. 17 juillet 2018 – Telegraph Journal

“It’s not because I’m from New Brunswick and it’s not because I’m Acadian, it’s just a fact: Dominic is the best communicator in the Trudeau government,” Savoie said.

“There’s no one better.

“And so it may be that Trudeau wants to use that talent in a more high profile file.”

LeBlanc was shifted into the Fisheries role largely to see through far-reaching changes that aimed to restore fish habitat protections that were gutted by the previous Conservative government in 2012.

Just ahead of Parliament rising for the summer, Bill C-68 was passed and is now headed to the Senate.

“I think he’s done what he set out to do,” Savoie said. “And with an election not that far around the corner, the prime minister may be saying ‘I want the talent in a capacity that resonates more nationally.’”

What that is remains to be seen.

Savoie said that he doesn’t see Trudeau changing out Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland while NAFTA negotiations continue or other top brass in Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

But he sees LeBlanc going to a file like Heritage, currently held by Melanie Joly, that would give him a podium to speak more broadly to the country.

LeBlanc’s press secretary Vincent Hughes said on Monday that LeBlanc is expected to be in New Brunswick on Wednesday.

He declined to speculate on a cabinet shuffle.

LeBlanc announced in December that he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but he has continued to work, revealing that he’s “tolerating” treatment sessions and that his doctors have told him that results are positive to date.

Hughes said LeBlanc remains in good health. 17 juillet 2018 – Telegraph Journal

Summer shuffles are common.

In a shakeup last August, Trudeau promoted rookie Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe MP Ginette Petitpas Taylor to federal Health minister.

That appointment brought a second New Brunswicker into a major position within the Liberal government’s inner circle. It also put a New Brunswick MP in charge of a file with huge importance to a province that is grappling with the rising cost of health care due to an aging population.

The looming shuffle could be the final changes Trudeau will make before the next federal election, slated for October 2019, presenting the opportunity to promote MPs that may face a tough reelection.

There are currently three New Brunswick MPs who are parliamentary secretaries, a position that politicians are usually promoted from into cabinet.

Fundy Royal MP Alaina Lockhart became the parliamentary secretary for Small Business and Tourism in September 2017.

She won election in 2015 by just over three percentage points.

Acadie-Bathurst MP Serge Cormier was first the parliamentary secretary to Fisheries and most recently the secretary to the minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship.

Meanwhile, Fredericton MP Matt De-Courcey is currently the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

But Savoie said there is “zero” chance another New Brunswick MP will make it into cabinet if LeBlanc and Petitpas Taylor remain in the inner circle.

New Brunswick MPs would make up 10 per cent of a 30-person cabinet if a third New Brunswick was to be named.

The province’s population makes up about two per cent of the country.

But Savoie did say it would be wise to appoint an MP in the region as the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. 17 juillet 2018 – Telegraph Journal

Savoie recently suggested in a widely-read editorial that Trudeau’s government was in danger of losing its political grip on the region, listing a decision to appoint Navdeep Bains, a minister from Ontario, to oversee ACOA and the death of the Energy East pipeline among a series of mistakes that he said hurt the region.