Putting it together

Advice to government and opposition for yet another big week

1. Who’s up for musical chairs?

Oh good, a cabinet shuffle. How long has it been, since March?

On Tuesday Canada will get a new health minister. She or he will be the seventh federal health minister in the decade since the Liberals formed government in 2015. The third so far in 2025. Mark Carney’s second. Here’s another measure of the pace of uncertain change: Ali Ehsassi became Canada’s first-ever “minister of government transformation” nine weeks ago. Will he keep that role? Will there be a second minister of government transformation to handle the next nine weeks? Or are we done transforming government?

I don’t want to be too dismissive. Almost all the jobs in cabinet are important. It probably often matters who does them. Most cabinet ministers work their butts off, and the things they’re best at are not always visible to voters.

But momentous choices become less momentous through overuse. A decade ago Justin Trudeau was reluctant to shuffle his cabinet. Later, less so, for all sorts of reasons. If cabinet is the heart of government, late-stage Trudeauism showed signs of heart flutter. Anita Anand is generally considered a consequential minister, for good reason. But she had six portfolios in the six years since she was first elected in 2019. It becomes hard to sink one’s teeth in.