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 it did four years ago, according to Progressive Conservatives.
Forming a cabinet will be a job for Ford after his re-election for a second term. With a bigger harvest of PC MPPs, most of which are at least four years under their belt in Queen’s Park, Ford has a wider range of options than it had when choosing its first cabinet in 2018.
At the time, the only lawmakers with experience in the legislature were computers, who won seats before Ford became leader – when the party was in opposition – making it a group that headed to more rural Ontario. All but one member of Ford’s first cabinet were white, and only seven were women.
Ford diversified his cabinet by one year until the end of his first term, while replacing ministers who opposed his response to the pandemic.
Now, with more lawmakers than any progressive conservative prime minister since the 1950s and a larger majority since his first term, political observers expect Ford to appoint a larger cabinet with more balanced regional, ethnic and gender representation.
“I think you can certainly expect the prime minister to expand his cabinet at least a little bit,” said Carl Baldauf, vice president of the McMillan Vantage Policy Group, who served as chief of staff to then-Finance Council President Peter Bethlenfall. during the first term of government.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford is pictured with members of his first cabinet and Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Dowdswell in June 2018 (Mark Blinch / The Canadian Press)
Baldauf said one of the challenges Ford faces is to ensure that all members of its larger PC team feel they are contributing to the government’s success.
Andrew Brander, a former adviser to Ford’s government and now vice president of Crestview Strategy, says Ford will need to take ethnic diversity and regional representation into account when setting up its new cabinet.
At the same time, Brander says Ford’s election victory of the promise to do so implies that he will want to maintain continuity from his first term. All 25 Ford cabinet ministers who called for 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 attract new people by creating new portfolios that focus on parts of large ministries and signal government priorities.
Ford has the option of appointing a larger cabinet with potentially more than 30 members, given both the strength of its majority and the fact that in these elections he speaks much less often about controlling the size and price of government than last road.
The most important hole Ford has to fill around the cabinet table is his health minister, following Christine Elliott’s decision to leave politics in March.
Sylvia Jones worked in the Cabinet as Advocate General of the Ford Government during the COVID-19 pandemic and was the minister responsible for overseeing the implementation of the vaccine in Ontario. She is a possible successor to Christine Elliott as health minister. (Cole Burston / Canadian Press)
“The prime minister will need a strong performer, someone he can trust completely, someone who knows how to deal with the spotlight,” Baldauf said. “This will be the biggest challenge for the prime minister and his transition team in the coming weeks.
Two names cited by sources are likely to become the next health minister: Sylvia Jones and Prabmet Sarkaria, both of whom have taken on roles in the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As Advocate General, Jones became the minister responsible for launching the vaccine, while Sarkaria, as head of the Finance Council, oversaw the development of the latest reopening plan.
Sources close to the government favor Jones. “The prime minister believes her,” said one.
Bethlenfalvi is expected to remain finance minister, in part because Ford dumped its first two finance ministers, Vic Fedeli and Rod Phillips, before each could pay a second budget, and markets do not like the volatility of the portfolio.
Numerous sources suggest that Labor Minister Monte McNaughton is on the rise after leading a government plan for “work for workers” that marked a shift that political strategists say has helped personal computers win previously NDP-held jobs in industrial cities such as Windsor, Hamilton and Timins.
Ford has not set a date for taking the oath of office. Although there are some reports that this will happen soon, government officials say it is not inevitable and is unlikely to happen until the second half of June.
Discussions on the timetable for recalling the legislature, delivering a throne speech and submitting the budget are still ongoing, an official in the prime minister’s office said, adding that no decisions have been made.
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