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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finds himself leading a cabinet with zero representation from the western provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan after the departure of embattled former employment minister Randy Boissonnault on Wednesday.
Boissonnault was the cabinet’s sole representative from Alberta and ministerial lead for the rebuilding of the fire-ravaged town of Jasper, Alta.
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Boissonnault’s departure comes at a bad time for the prime minister, who’s repeatedly touted the need for a unified “Team Canada” approach to bilateral relations with the United States, in advance of the looming return of Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda to Washington.
Trudeau will now need to do this without a single emissary in his cabinet to either Alberta or Saskatchewan, both major exporters of energy and agricultural products to the U.S.
Calgary Conservative MP Greg McLean told the National Post on Tuesday that Trudeau has himself to blame for the lack of representation.
“There’s a reason (the Liberals) don’t have good representation in Alberta,” said McLean. “It’s because they’ve worked against Alberta’s interests for a long time.”
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Liberal prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin each tended to promote MPs from the two provinces to senior cabinet positions.
Ex-Alberta MP Anne McLellan and ex-Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale, for example, were both senior ministers in successive Liberal cabinets in the 1990s and early 2000s.
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Justin Trudeau himself tapped Goodale as his second-in-command shortly after becoming prime minister in 2015, issuing an order stating that Goodale would become acting prime minister in the event of his death or incapacitation.
Goodale was subsequently defeated in the 2019 election, putting an end to his near 26-year run as an MP.
Yet Trudeau now finds himself without an olive branch to extend to the two western provinces, both of which have historically leaned conservative.
Boissonnault is one of just two Liberal MPs from Alberta. The other, George Chahal, has had trouble keeping his own nose clean, after being fined $500 for taking an opponent’s pamphlet from a front door during the 2021 federal election.
Chahal told the National Post on Wednesday that Boissonnault had done a “great job” coordinating recovery efforts in Jasper but declined to say whether he was prepared to take on the role in the event of Boissonnault’s departure.
To make matters even worse, Trudeau has a non-existent talent pool to draw from in Saskatchewan, where the Conservative Party has swept all 14 seats in successive elections.
rmohamed@postmedia.com
National Post
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