Doug Ford shuffles his cabinet for the second time in two weeks

Shuffle comes after Labour Minister Monte McNaughton announced he is quitting provincial politics.

Thestar.com
Sept. 25, 2023
Robert Benzie, Kristin Rushowy and Rob Ferguson

In the wake of his Greenbelt flip-flop, Premier Doug Ford shuffled his cabinet for the second time in two weeks over the $8.28-billion land swap scandal and the unrelated departure of high-profile Labour Minister Monte McNaughton.

The shakeup followed McNaughton’s decision to take a job outside politics and the sudden resignation of Kaleed Rasheed as minister of public and business service delivery amid questions about a Las Vegas encounter with a developer friend who owns properties removed from the protected zone.

Ford transferred one minister and promoted three backbench MPPs Friday in a desperate reboot of his flailing Progressive Conservative government, which has tumbled in the polls over the Greenbelt imbroglio.

In an unusual move, Ford did not comment on the shuffle but a brief statement from his office said the changes reflect a “renewed team ready to keep working to build Ontario.”

Taking over from McNaughton in labour, immigration, training and skills development is David Piccini. He is replaced as minister of environment, conservation and parks by Andrea Khanjin (Barrie-Innisfil), who has previously served as a parliamentary assistant in the portfolio.

Todd McCarthy (Durham), a lawyer, assumes Rasheed’s old post and Vijay Thanigasalam (Scarborough-Rouge Park) becomes associate minister of transportation.

The new ministers will have little time to get familiar with their departments before MPPs return for the fall session of the legislature Monday as the Conservatives struggle to regroup after Ford axed his plan to take 7,400 acres out of the Greenbelt.

“This is a government in complete and utter disarray, fractured after lurching from scandal to scandal. Ford’s Conservatives are now down three cabinet ministers in just three weeks,” said NDP Leader Marit Stiles.

“It is always difficult to know the right time to leave politics,” said the veteran minister, a 46-year-old married father of one daughter who admitted to “much soul searching over the summer.”

“I have spoken with Premier Ford to let him know that I am stepping down from my cabinet duties immediately and will be resigning my seat in the days ahead. I will not be seeking re-election,” he added.

“I support Premier Ford and am proud to have served in his cabinet. I am forever grateful for the opportunities he’s given me to contribute to this amazing province. I believe strongly in his team and its vision.”

The premier thanked McNaughton for making political inroads with parts of the labour movement.

“He made this decision based on what is best for him and his family at this point in his life and career. I’m very grateful for Monte’s work as a key member of our team,” Ford said in a statement.

“Monte helped build a coalition of private-sector union support that has never existed in the history of the Ontario PC Party. He introduced groundbreaking measures to protect workers’ rights and ensure that more workers are in the driver’s seat of their own careers,” he said.

Often touted as a future Tory leader, the affable McNaughton was the first Conservative minister to march in Toronto’s Labour Day parade in decades and was instrumental in courting labour unions.

Eight private-sector unions endorsed Ford’s Tories in the June 2022 election and the party’s “Big Blue Collar Machine” strategy helped them win traditional New Democratic ridings in Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor and Timmins.

McNaughton led the charge to finally raise the hourly minimum wage, which will jump to $16.55 from $15.60 on Oct. 1, and introduced protections to improve the rights of gig workers and other progressive workplace reforms.

For his efforts, he received the personal endorsement of former union leader Patrick Dillon, architect of the Working Families coalition whose attack ads helped former Liberal premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne win four elections between 2003 and 2014.

“Some heads exploded,” one veteran Conservative confided last year, recalling how much the Tories once feared and loathed Dillon.

“But the party was wrong in the past (to vilify unions). There is so much common ground. It isn’t rocket science but it takes work, time and no ego,” the insider said at the time.

The four-term Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP’s resignation is a huge blow to a premier reeling from the Greenbelt scandal.

Ford was forced to shuffle his cabinet on Sept. 4 after municipal affairs and housing minister Steve Clark quit. Rasheed left cabinet and the PC caucus on Wednesday.

Two top aides -- Clark’s former chief of staff Ryan Amato and Ford’s housing policy adviser Jae Truesdell -- have also resigned as a result of the Greenbelt debacle.