Justin Trudeau removes Marc Garneau from cabinet, but does not say why

OTTAWA – He’s a former astronaut and naval officer with high schools named after him, a front-line government minister who has just been re-elected by the people of Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Westmount.

And now he’s out of cabinet work.

On Tuesday morning, as a parade of Liberal MPs strode through the pouring rain to take office as cabinet ministers at Rideau Hall, Marc Garneau was nowhere to be found.

After just nine months on the job, Garneau was replaced as Canada’s foreign minister by Mélanie Joly, a fellow MP from Montreal who took on the role in a major political promotion.

Garneau, 72, is one of three ministers who were re-elected in federal elections last month, but were not appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the new cabinet that will lead his government in his third term in Parliament since the Liberals came to power in 2015. The others, Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger and Jim Carr of Manitoba, had relatively smaller portfolios.

But Garneau was Canada’s minister for global affairs, a front-row role at the heart of the cabinet from which he directed the country’s foreign policy and relations with other countries.

Trudeau sidestepped the question when asked Tuesday why he had excluded Garneau from his new cabinet, instead thanking him and saying he’s happy Garneau remains a liberal MP. But he added that he is pleased to showcase new cabinet members who can address the challenges facing Canada.

“It’s never easy to put together the right cabinet at the moment, but I find the team around me today to be the right one for the situation and for years to come,” Trudeau said in French.

In a written statement to the Star, Garneau said it was “an honor and a privilege to serve my country” as a cabinet minister since 2015, and thanked his liberal colleagues, staff and public servants who worked with him, his family and constituents. on his riding in Montreal.

A senior government official, who spoke on the condition that they were not identified, said Trudeau’s decision to remove Garneau must have been “tough” because he did an “incredible job” as foreign minister. Garneau was credited with helping secure the release of the two Canadians imprisoned in China after the Vancouver arrest of Chinese executive Meng Wanzhou, and was the field marshal of an international statement against arbitrary detentions that was signed by more than 60 countries.

He also had a “seamless” relationship with the Prime Minister’s Office, the official said.

“I don’t see it as a performance hit or anything,” the official said. “I know he was excellent at his job.”

Before entering politics, Garneau had a distinguished and high-profile career that made him the first Canadian in space when he was selected to join the US space shuttle crew in 1984. He later became astronaut training specialist for NASA and went back to space in 1996 and 2000.

Garneau was first elected as a Liberal MP in 2008, when the party was in opposition. He ran against Trudeau for Liberal leadership, but withdrew from the race a month before it ended in the spring of 2013, calling it a “fait accompli” that his main rival would win.

When Trudeau became prime minister two years later, he appointed Garneau to his first cabinet as Transport Minister, a position in which he remained until January 2021, when he was transferred to Foreign Affairs.

Colin Robertson, a former career diplomat and vice president of the Canadian Institute for Global Affairs, said it makes sense to replace Garneau with Joly, whom he described as a “new face” who may take a fresh chance to fulfill Trudeau’s vision that Canada play a bigger role on the world stage.

Robertson also noted that Garneau is of a different generation than Trudeau, while Joly might have skills that fit more closely with the direction the prime minister wants to take on major international affairs.

“I think Trudeau wanted someone who better reflects how he sees Canada in the world,” Robertson said. “The prime minister has to feel comfortable with his ministers.”

Yet Joly becomes Trudeau’s fifth foreign minister in just six years, which is “a problem” for a cabinet position that benefits from continuity and insight into complex global issues, Roland Paris said. , Trudeau’s former foreign policy adviser and professor of international affairs. at the University of Ottawa.

“Canada faces very important and complicated challenges,” said Paris, “and the leadership of that department must have a firm hand on the tiller. And it’s a complex set of problems that takes time to assimilate. “

Both Paris and Robertson noted that Joly will quickly face key challenges on the job, including resolving a dispute with the U.S. state of Michigan over the threat of closure of Line 5, a vital pipeline that supplies central Canada, as well as the elaboration of a new strategy. to deal with China and other countries in the Pacific region.