Prime Minister Doug Ford will create a larger cabinet that better reflects Ontario’s diversity and put his own stamp on the government more firmly than four years ago, according to progressive Conservative experts.
Forming a cabinet will be Ford’s number one job after being re-elected for a second term. With a larger crop of PC MPPs, most of which are at least four years old in Queen’s Park, Ford has a wider range of options than it had in selecting its first cabinet in 2018.
At the time, the only experienced MPs in the Legislature were the PCs who had won their seats before Ford became the leader, when the party was in opposition, turning it into a group that deviated towards the more rural parts of Ontario. All but one of Ford’s first cabinet members were white, and only seven were women.
Ford diversified its cabinet by one year for its first term, while replacing ministers who had opposed its response to the pandemic.
Now, with more MPs than any progressive-Conservative prime minister since the 1950s and a larger majority than his first term, political observers expect Ford to appoint a larger cabinet with more regional, ethnic and gender representation. balanced.
“I think you can certainly expect the Prime Minister to expand the size of his cabinet at least a little bit,” said Karl Baldauf, vice president of McMillan Vantage Policy Group, who served as chief of staff to the then chairman of the Treasury Board. Peter Bethlenfalvy. during the first term of government.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford appears with members of his first cabinet and Lt. Elizabeth Dowdeswell in June 2018. (Mark Blinch / The Canadian Press)
Baldauf said one of the challenges Ford faces is ensuring that all members of its largest PC caucus feel that they are contributing to the success of the government.
Andrew Brander, who served as senior adviser to the Ford government and is now vice president of Crestview Strategy, says Ford will need to take ethnic diversity and regional representation into account when creating its new cabinet.
At the same time, Brander says Ford’s election victory with a promise of “Do It” suggests that he will want to maintain continuity from his first term. Ford’s 25 cabinet ministers seeking re-election on June 2 retained their seats.
“I think the cabinet will largely reflect the previous cabinet,” Brander said in an interview. He added that Ford can bring new faces by creating new portfolios that focus on parts of key ministries and set government priorities.
Ford has room for maneuver to appoint a larger cabinet with potentially more than 30 members, given both the strength of its majority and the fact that it spoke much less often in this election to control the size and cost of government than the last. once.
The biggest hole Ford has to fill around the cabinet table is its Health Minister, following Christine Elliott’s decision in March to quit politics.
Sylvia Jones served in the cabinet as attorney general for the Ford government during the COVID-19 pandemic and was the minister responsible for overseeing the deployment of the vaccine in Ontario. She is a possible successor to Christine Elliott as Minister of Health. (Cole Burston / The Canadian Press)
“The prime minister will need a strong interpreter, someone he can trust completely, someone who knows how to manage the spotlight,” Baldauf said. “It will be the biggest challenge for the Prime Minister and his transition team in the coming weeks.”
Sources suggested two names who would possibly become the next health minister: Sylvia Jones and Prabmeet Sarkaria, both of whom took on roles related to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As attorney general, Jones became the minister responsible for the deployment of the vaccine, while Sarkaria, as head of the Treasury Board, oversaw the development of the latest reopening plan.
Sources close to the government give Jones the lead. “The Prime Minister trusts her,” says one.
Bethlenfalvy is expected to continue as finance minister, in part because Ford left its two finance ministers, Vic Fedeli and Rod Phillips, before either of them managed to present a second budget, and markets dislike instability. in this portfolio.
Several sources suggest that Labor Minister Monte McNaughton is in line for a promotion after leading the government’s “work for workers” plan, which marked a change that political strategists say helped PCs to winning previously NDP seats in industrial cities such as Windsor, Hamilton and Timmins.
Ford has not set a date for the cabinet oath. While there have been some reports coming soon, government officials say it is not imminent and will probably not take place until late June.
Discussions are still ongoing on the timetable for reconvening the Legislature, delivering a speech from the throne and presenting the budget, an official in the prime minister’s office said, adding that no decisions have been made. .