Juno News - November 25, 2025Carney eyes MAJOR cabinet PURGE
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Summary
PM Mark Carney could be ready to, well, launch a major shake-up of his cabinet. That, according to an exclusive in the Toronto Sun, could mean dropping some of the mainstays from the Trudeau era and elevating others.
Transcript
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And welcome to Straight Up. I am your host, Mark Bertrand. I appreciate you tuning in.
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Shaking up the liberal government. Prime Minister Mark Carney could be ready to,
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well, launch a major shakeup of his cabinet. That according to an exclusive in the Toronto Sun.
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The moves could mean dropping some of the mainstays from the Trudeau era and elevating
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others. In his column, Brian Lilly writes as follows. This is all part of a plan to shed
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Trudeau era deadwood and have Carney attract new faces and new talent to try and put his own stamp
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on the liberal party. Now, one key departure is expected to be that of Melanie Jolie, the current
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industry minister. This headline, Melanie Jolie, I's Paris ambassador role is Carney plans major
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cabinet overhaul. Now, Jolie has been a close personal friend of Justin Trudeau's for two
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decades. When she ran for the leadership of the liberal party, she carried the flag for the
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Trudeau wing, pushing for a continuation of his policies. Is her departure, impending departure,
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a sign that Carney is purging the cabinet of Trudeau loyalists? Well, others could follow Jolie out the
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door. Brian Lilly writes, there could be political risks to that. He will be joining us
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to talk about that story minutes from now. After Carney dismissed a question by a reporter this
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week about whether he'd spoken to President Trump, we learn the PM may be soon traveling to Washington,
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D.C. next week. CBC is reporting that Carney may attend the draw for the FIFA World Cup in which
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Canada, the United States and Mexico are jointly hosting next year. Now, conservative leader,
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Pierre Polyev ripped Carney after the PM flippantly said, who cares in response to the question of
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whether he'd spoken to Trump. Since he took office, not only has he failed to get the promised
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deal, but American tariffs on aluminum, autos and steel have doubled. On forestry communities,
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they have tripled. The prime minister says, who cares? All of us on this side of the house
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care about the communities that are being emptied out in our forestry, the steel workers in Hamilton
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who don't have jobs to pay their mortgages. We care about those people. Why doesn't he?
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Well, for all the talk of an imminent pipeline announcement, B.C. Premier David Eby says he
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doesn't feel threatened by that. Eby, a hardline opponent to the proposed pipeline,
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says there's no point being threatened by a project that doesn't exist. Let's listen.
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Not threatened by a project that doesn't actually exist. The entire proposal from Premier Smith is a
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communications exercise. There is no company, there's no money, there's no route, there's no
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nothing. And so, you know, I try to keep that in front of mind as I wrestle with the fact that the
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entire country seems to be particularly interested in this non-existent project when British Columbia
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is delivering tens of billions of dollars in real projects, thousands and thousands of jobs,
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billions of dollars of revenue that will flow to federal and provincial coffers if we can close
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these deals which are approaching final investment decision in the next 12 months.
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It's been widely reported that Prime Minister Carney and Alberta Premier Daniel Smith will soon be
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announcing a deal that includes a pipeline this week. And I'm now joined by Brian Lilly,
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columnist with the Toronto Sun. And he's got this exclusive headline, Melanie Jolie eyes Paris
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ambassador role as Carney plans major cabinet overhaul. Welcome to the show, Brian.
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Thanks for having me. Wouldn't you love to go live in Paris at the Canadian embassy,
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Mark? I mean, it's, it's in the eighth arrondissement. It's a historic Hotel de Rigny.
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You're down the street from Emmanuel Macron's presidential palace. You get invites to all the
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best parties, all the best shoppings. Like this is what you want, right? You, this is what you want
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as your reward for being a loyal liberal soldier. Except it may not be entirely a reward. I mean,
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if I read your column correctly, uh, Carney's looking to make some changes and she's one of
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the changes that he wants to make. Isn't that so? Yeah. So it appears to me that there's a bit
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of give and take here. So, uh, Carney definitely wants to make changes. He wants to put his own
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stamp on the liberal party. Of course, we saw during the trust in Trudeau era that Trudeau tried to take
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the liberal party to the left of the NDP. He followed the Kathleen Wynne plan. No surprise.
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Many of the people around, um, Trudeau, when he took office, when he became leader,
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were former Queens Park people who had been around Kathleen Wynne. Uh, I call them the Gerard
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Kennedy wing of the liberal party. You know, Kennedy was, uh, uh, politician at various levels of
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government. He tried to run for the leadership of the liberal party was unsuccessful, but all the
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people around him went on to great things in the PMO or to become cabinet ministers like marrying
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or become prime minister like Justin Trudeau. And they very much wanted a very left wing liberal
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party. So that's what they did. Mark Carney. I'm not one of these people that says, oh, it's really
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a conservative government or Mark Carney's a conservative. I don't buy that. He's still very
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much a liberal, but he's not a new Democrat pretending to be a liberal. And that's kind of the
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difference right now. So Carney's trying to put his own stamp. He's trying to shift the
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party closer to the center. I'm not going to say the center, but closer to it. And so he wants to
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get rid of Trudeau era Deadwood and then areas where he can put in, you know, potentially star
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candidates, whether it's Chrystia Freeland in Toronto, um, with university Rosedale or with
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Scarborough Guildwood, where Bill Blair, the former public safety minister and Toronto police chief is
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North Vancouver, where Jonathan Wilkinson is. And now we're hearing Melanie Jolie in a Hanset
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Cartierville. That's the North end of Montreal. Fairly safe liberal seats. Not all of them,
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especially North Vancouver and Scarborough. Those could potentially, if the conservatives play it
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right, go blue, but fairly safe liberal seats. And so if he gets rid of these people, then he can bring
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in his own candidates. So he wants to move these folks out. Jolie says, okay, but if I'm going,
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I want something, I want to go to Paris. I want to be the ambassador to France. What's funny is that
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the current ambassador to France is a guy named Stéphane Dion. Maybe you remember him as leader of
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the Liberal Party more than a decade ago. Justin Trudeau's early on foreign affairs minister.
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Why is he the ambassador to Paris, to France and Paris? Because Trudeau wanted rid of him in 2017
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and shipped him off to Europe to get rid of him and allow other people to run. He was originally
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the ambassador to Germany and a special representative to the EU. Then in 2022 became
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ambassador to France. So, you know, this is becoming a liberal rite of passage, I guess. When we're done
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with you, we'll ship you off somewhere. I think that the big diplomatic appointments in Paris,
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in Washington, in London, should be political people, not diplomats. But is Melanie Jolie the
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right one? I don't know. She hasn't been very good at any of her portfolios yet.
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Yeah. I mean, is this due to changes in the energy sector and the talk about pipelines? You know,
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is that why you weed people out who might be, to your point, you know, left of center and hardliners as
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far as climate ideology goes, it could the two be married in terms of connected, where you get rid
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of people who are going to be real sticks in the mud about policies related to the energy sector?
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You know, what's funny is that Jolie is not someone who has pronounced on that as much as some of her
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colleagues. Is she more on the progressive left-wing side of the Liberal Party? Absolutely. But she's a
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Becker. So I think that goes without saying. I think that it is just that she is of that Trudeau ilk,
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where, you know, for lack of a better term, virtue signaling, posturing, these are more important
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than results. And if we believe the hype on Carney, he believes in results over posturing. So,
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you know, look, she shows up to the meeting with the Swedes about the Gripen Jett wearing military
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style green outfits. And look, I know some progressives are saying, oh, how dare you say
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that? Look, someone that wore that as a uniform, that's exactly what she was doing. She was wearing
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olive drab. That's what we call it in the Canadian Armed Forces. It's not green. It's olive drab.
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And she wore that and military-esque outfits to, oh, look, I'm here to buy fighter jets from the
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Swedes and we'll get 10,000 jobs. That's performative. It's not results oriented.
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Carney doesn't want that. He doesn't want, he also doesn't want someone who has leadership ambitions
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around. She was looking at running for the Liberal leadership when Trudeau resigned and then thought,
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well, nobody's going to win. This is what she told people. We're not going to win,
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so I'm not going to run this time. Which means, well, next time. Except the guy who did win the
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Liberal leadership won the election. And he doesn't want someone like that around him. Also, as I pointed
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out, not exactly the most confident minister. She was Minister of Heritage in 2017 for Canada's 150th.
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And she screwed up putting a skating rink on the front lawn of Parliament Hill.
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Now, you say there could be political risks to Carney if this isn't done too well, if it's done
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in a rash manner or too quickly. How is that risk possible?
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Well, look, he's in a minority situation. He can't afford to lose votes. So he's got to handle this
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properly. If he, you know, from what I'm told, the Liberals are looking to line up by elections all at
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once for Wilkinson, Blair, Freeland, and now Jolie. There could be others. Like, I know they want to
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get rid of Stephen Guibault, the former environment minister now in charge of what was called Heritage,
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forget the name that they've given it now. Wilkinson's riding, as I said, it's been conservative
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in the past. It was at one point a reform in Canadian Alliance riding. It's been blue more
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than it's been red over the last 30 years. Guibault's riding has been both Locke and NDP prior to him
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running. So, you know, they could lose a couple of these. Scarborough-Gilwood, you know, if the
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conservatives get their act together, could win that. So there is some risk. He, what does he
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really want? He wants a majority government. And if he puts all of these out and things aren't going
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well at the time of the election, well, then that could see him lose one or two of these. Now, I doubt
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he'd lose all of them, but he could lose a few of them. So, but let's say, you know, hear me out, and
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they announce all of this just after the House rises for the Christmas break, the week of December
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15th. He does a cabinet shuffle, drops some useless people like Lina Dieb in immigration, or,
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you know, shuffles Gary and DeSangri out of public safety into something he's more suited for.
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And then, you know, these people all resign, and he calls the by-elections for late January,
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early February. Well, the NDP has no leader, and they have no money. So they're not going to be
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organized for a by-election. The conservatives are completely focused on Pierre Polia's
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leadership review. So if the liberals are smart, they get as many of these people to resign at once,
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call a by-election for the end of February, or end of January, early February, and it's kind of like
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a sneak attack. Then you have a better chance of winning. These are the types of discussions that
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are happening on the Hill. I'm not endorsing these. I'm just telling you what's happening.
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This is kind of what they're looking at doing. And then there still are some liberals that want to
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do a spring election, and if not spring, then fall, if they can get to use the old party Quebec
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wall term, the winning conditions. Right. That was my next question, is a speculation around an election
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next year, and whether these moves are designed, and you've sort of touched on that, to position the
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party a little bit more towards the center, make it more moderate, and broaden its appeal, presumably
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to people who might otherwise vote conservative. Is that what's going on here, getting the party ready
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I think so. And look, even if they're more left-wing people, bring in people who are still competent,
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rather than people that are interested in showing you the right thing.
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One of the biggest problems with the Trudeau government is they didn't care about results.
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You know, if you said the right thing about ending poverty, that was better than doing
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something that would lift people out of poverty. And there can be left-wing governments that are
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competent, that can get things done. And especially you look at, you know, Prairie New Democrats that are
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very pragmatic. You know, Roy Romano over the years, you know, things like that. Wob Canoe right now,
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very popular. These sorts of leaders can do well. But for Trudeau, they didn't care about the results.
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They cared about the press release, and the news conference, and the announcement. And then they
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forgot that they ever said anything about whatever issue they were talking about. So Carney's looking
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for people that are going to come in and say, okay, how do I get results? How do I, you know,
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deliver on something? Whether it is the whole issue of getting a pipeline to Tidewater, whether it is the
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issue of building up large-scale nuclear reactors or small modulars, building Canada's energy
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infrastructure. You know, as much as I have skepticism I do about how he's handling it,
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I do believe he wants to do something to improve the Canadian economy. I couldn't say that about
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Justin Trudeau. So he's looking for competent people to go in, and he wants to put his own stamp
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on the party. Will he be able to do it? Depends on who he can recruit. You know, still in a minority
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situation, and Mark, you've been around politics a long time. If I come to you and I'm like, hey, Mark,
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I'd like you to run. You know, we're in government. We can get you in cabinet. This would be great.
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And you're like, yeah, but you're in a minority and you're going to an election in six months. So
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why would I run? That's kind of the thing that he's in right now. So will he be able to recruit
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that top talent? That's a big question for him and part of the risk that we were talking about earlier.
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Well, maybe he wants people who are ideologically in sync with him. And if you are in sync with Carney and
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you believe in the kind of policies he wants to push, maybe he'd be more inclined to run.
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But I want to ask you about the who cares comment as well, because you've been writing about this as
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well. Yeah. A comment tossed off by Carney in response to a question about Trump and whether
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he'd been in contact with Trump. What do you make of that? I mean, sometimes, you know, he says things
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that are tossed off, dismissed, you know, it almost comes out of his mouth before he gets a chance to
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prevent it from doing so. And I think this was one of those times he just, you could sense that
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there's frustration there and you really saw it with that reaction. And now here he is going off to
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DC next week for the FIFA thing. What can you draw from this?
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He's still not quite a politician. He's done better than I ever expected, Mark. I, you know,
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someone that covered him when he was the Bank of Canada governor, I thought, well, he's a bit wooden.
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He has trouble communicating sometimes. He's going to have trouble relating to the average person.
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He's done far better than I expected. I mean, obviously, so he won the election. So, you know,
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you've got to hand him that, whether you support him or not, you got to hand him that. He and his
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party won the election. The Liberals had no business winning, but he was able to pull it off.
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But he still gets those moments where he just sounds really annoyed, and especially with women
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reporters. He just, with reporters in general, but with women reporters especially, and this was
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Ashley Burke from CBC. She was asking a very valid question. You know, is the president returning
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your calls or your texts? Are you talking to him? And then, you know, the second part of her
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question was about, and which countries would you, you know, draw a red line on doing business with?
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Well, he answered the second part at length and then didn't answer the first part. And so she yelled
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out, but what about talking to the president? And he not only said, who cares, but it was the wave of
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the hand. Who cares? And he's waving his hand saying, who cares? It's a detail. It's a detail.
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Well, I'm sorry, I'm from Hamilton. You know who cares? People working at Selk and DeFasco.
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You know who else cares? People working in Algoma, at Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie. People working
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at the pipe plant in Regina, or the steel mill in Edmonton. People working at aluminum places,
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people working in auto parts. Any of these tariff impacted industries care deeply about this.
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So, you know, look, he had some good wins on this trip. $70 billion Canadian, $50 billion US in
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promised investments from the UAE. There's not a lot of detail on there. We don't know what it's
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going to be, but the Emiratis have the money, so I'm not worried about something showing up. I mean,
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that's not a big investment for them. It's big for us. It's not for them. So yeah, something's going to
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show up, and if it's $25 billion US instead of $50 billion, well, we're still going to be happy.
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He negotiated that deal with India and Australia on things like critical minerals,
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providing energy. I hope that's LNG, but also small and large nuclear reactors. That's a good deal.
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So he had the good deal with the UAE. He had the good deal with India and Australia.
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And then he's asked about the US, which is still more than 70% of our exports. And he says, who cares?
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Well, that takes away from everything that he's just done before, because we're talking about
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who cares instead of his wins. It's a dumb own goal by Mark Carney. You know,
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is he trying to play hard to get with the Americans? I don't know. But if I'm a steel worker,
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if I'm an auto worker, if I'm an aluminum worker, I'm pissed off at the moment. And guess what? I have
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family in all of those areas. This is not going over well. Being dismissive of women, that's a major
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red flag. I mean, they supported him massively. And we always hear about how Polyev has a problem with
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women voters. And now we find out that maybe Mark Carney has an issue with female reporters and is
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dismissive of them a little bit. I mean, that could be a grenade. I mean, if-
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Oh, it could be. And look, both of them can be dismissive of journalists. So what? Guess what?
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That's part of the job. I've been at this a long time. I've had lots of politicians, including Justin
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Trudeau, stare me down, talk down at me, be aggressive. This is just how the world works.
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But Carney has a specific issue with female reporters, be it Ashley Burke at CBC, Rosemary
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Barton. Look inside yourself, Rosemary. Exactly. Stephanie Levitt, Levitt's at the Globe and Mail.
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The woman that interviewed him at the Canadian Club recently, I believe her name's Amber Canwar. I
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apologize. I don't know her. If I got the name wrong, I apologize. He was dismissive of her,
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if you recall that conversation. She tried raising the issue of, well, the industry says there are
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problems with the regulatory environment. No, no, there's not. No, no. And he was very aggressive
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and dismissive. This is an ongoing thing. And if I'm one of his handlers, I'm in a bit of a panic
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and saying, how do I get the boss to change? Because all of these people, by the time you're at the age,
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Mark Carney is, it's hard to get them to change. It's hard to get any of us to change. But if you're
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one of his handlers, you're saying, if this keeps up, this becomes, as you said, a grenade,
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this becomes a major problem. And it will turn off voters if it continues.
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Last question, I want to ask you about the upcoming, assuming it happens, is an announcement
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regarding possible pipeline deal. And you've got EB out saying there is no deal. So why should I be
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threatened by any of that? Any thoughts about that as we head to Thursday and this apparent announcement?
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Well, Premier Smith's office isn't confirming or denying anything. Neither is Carney's PMO.
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You know, I'm still being told by Smith's office that they're cautiously optimistic, that they
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are hopeful for good things. So look, she's still being a good soldier. She's playing along.
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So is Scott Moe on the canola tariff. So he is clearly, unlike Trudeau, willing to give them
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something. I know some of their voters are very frustrated that they're saying anything nice about
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Mark Carney, rather than just trying to put him in a headlock, give him newbies and wait for him to
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cry uncle. But these are serious issues for the respective economies of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
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And they've got to take these issues seriously. Sounds like there's going to be something. The
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question is, how many caveats are on it, Mark? Does Daniel Smith have to go out and do the work
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to get BC and the various First Nations groups on board? Or does she have a partner in the federal
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government whose responsibility it is to do this? So is it, well, if you can go out and sell it,
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we'll give you the commission later after we take our cut? Or is it yes, we're partners? That's a big
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part that we don't know at this point. Brian Lilly, the Toronto Sun. How do people find you?
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Brian Lilly.com, torontosun.com. Check it out. You can find me on social media. I am ubiquitous.
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Thank you so much for coming on the show. We appreciate it.
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And that is it for this edition of Straight Up. Appreciate you tuning in, my friends. Let's do it