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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau carved new roles in his government Wednesday designed to ensure voices on the Prairies are heard around a cabinet table which contains scant representation from the region.
As part of a broad shuffle that put new faces in charge of several key portfolios that directly touch on Western concerns, former cabinet minister Jim Carr was also named Trudeau’s “special representative” for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
In a statement, Carr described the job as being Trudeau’s “eyes and ears in the West.”
“I’m a lifelong westerner and have a deep attachment to the region,” he said.
“Many western Canadians are feeling frustrated. I will work with them, listen to them and advocate for a strong west in a united Canada.”
Carr is currently being treated for a form of blood cancer, but Trudeau said Wednesday he knows the Winnipeg MP remains committed to the job.
“It is something that we have chosen to make sure that we have a strong voice reporting directly to me and to cabinet on the concerns faced by the Prairies,” Trudeau said.
“We will continue to work every day as an active group of ministers who will engage right across the country on all issues that matter.”
The move follows the Liberals’ complete shutout in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the October federal election, including the loss of two cabinet ministers. The Liberals also lost three seats in Manitoba.
Carr formerly served as both natural resources minister and minister for international trade diversification, two portfolios exceptionally top of mind in the Prairies, given struggles in the energy sector and ongoing trade disputes affecting Canadian farmers and producers. He was currently leading the Canadian charge at the World Trade Organization over China’s ban on Canadian canola shipments.
In another move directly designed as outreach to the West, Trudeau reinstated the historical position of deputy prime minister, giving it to former foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland, who will also be in charge of intergovernmental affairs.
Freeland, though an MP for a Toronto riding, was born in Alberta.
She’d previously served as Trudeau’s minister for trade and then foreign affairs, and will now need to bring her diplomatic skills to bear on the home front at a time when provincial-federal relationships are exceptionally rocky due to issues like the federal carbon tax, immigration and the Trans Mountain pipeline.
The West sent a clear message to the Liberals during the campaign, Freeland said Wednesday.
“Now is the moment when we need to respond, to begin with by listening really, really hard and really effectively,” she said.
While both Freeland and Carr are strong performers, at the end of the day they can only do so much, said Martha Hall Findlay, president of the Canada West Foundation. Carr once sat on the think-tank’s board.
The question will be whether Trudeau listens to what they have to say, she said. Key first steps would be changes to new laws regulating the oil and gas industry that are widely seen as choking off its growth.
“If the prime minister and his entourage take heed and act accordingly, or change their actions accordingly, then that would be great,” she said.
“If the prime minister and his entourage do not heed what (they) say, then I would argue it could even backfire.”
Other MPs from the West who nabbed a spot in cabinet include Winnipeg’s Dan Vandal, appointed minister of Northern Affairs. British Columbia’s Jonathan Wilkinson was shuffled to Environment from Fisheries, and Carla Qualtrough, also from B.C., was moved to Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion from her previous role as minister of public services, procurement and accessibility.
Trudeau also appointed his longtime friend Seamus O’Regan, who hails from Newfoundland and Labrador, to the Natural Resources portfolio, the ministry charged with overseeing oil pipeline construction.
He’s previously served as veterans’ affairs minister, and minister for indigenous services.
Earlier this year, he gave a widely panned speech to the Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Industries Association’s annual conference, where he defended Liberal legislation that many in the industry disliked.
“This is the third cabinet portfolio O’Regan has held in the last three years — each one has been a bigger disaster than the last,” said a statement from the Opposition Conservatives.
Stephanie Levitz , The Canadian Press