Doug Ford gears up for a revamped cabinet

Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

As Premier Doug Ford prepares to revamp his cabinet following the Progressive Conservatives’ landslide election victory, that’s his message to ministerial hopefuls.

“I don’t discuss positions about cabinet and I have one rule with our caucus: don’t lobby me for cabinet,” Ford said the morning after his party’s June 2 triumph.

“No one lobby me or (have) your supporters lobby me. It just doesn’t work that way with me. We sit down, we do an evaluation,” he said.

Jamie Wallace, Ford’s chief of staff, is leading the dozen-member transition team that will make the recommendations to him for remaking the cabinet.

“Ultimately, it’s the premier’s call,” said a senior Conservative official, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations.

The top priority is to appoint a replacement for Health Minister Christine Elliott, who did not seek re-election.

Sources say the front-runners to succeed Elliott, who is also deputy premier, are Solicitor General Sylvia Jones and Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark.

“Sylvia has done a terrific job during the pandemic and Steve has managed some difficult files for us,” said a second Tory insider.

In the wake of COVID-19 and with an eye to the massive hospital expansion he has promised over the coming years, Ford wants to bolster the Ministry of Health, which already consumes almost half of the provincial budget.

“Don’t be surprised if you see an associate minister of hospital infrastructure that will report to the (new health) minister,” said a third PC source with knowledge of the proposals.

A fourth insider emphasized it is “early days” in the cabinet-making and it could be two weeks before ministers are appointed.

“There’s lots of good work underway on our plans for the (second) term.”

It is expected that Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy, Treasury Board President Prabmeet Sarkaria, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, and Education Minister Stephen Lecce will remain in their current roles.

“Peter and Prab have done a good job on the numbers; Caroline will be busy with the (proposed Highway) 413 and Bradford Bypass; and Lecce needs to deal with the teachers’ contracts,” said the first source, referring to looming challenges.

With 83 MPPs, up from the 76 his party won in the 2018 election, Ford is looking at expanding the cabinet from the current 28 members.

Newcomers the premier is considering tapping for ministerial posts include: Patrice Barnes (Ajax); Andrew Dowie (Windsor-Tecumseh); George Pirie (Timmins); Charmaine Williams (Brampton Centre); Rob Flack (Elgin-Middlesex-London); and Jess Dixon (Kitchener South-Hespeler).

“There are geographic considerations now that we’ve won seats in Windsor and Timmins and Hamilton,” noted the second Tory.

Ford has already telegraphed that he may appoint a regional minister from Hamilton — either newly elected Neil Lumsden, a Canadian Football League legend, or second-term MPP Donna Skelly (Flamborough-Glanbrook).

“I want to thank Neil Lumsden and Donna Skelly, two great, great MPPs. They’re both going to play a critical role in our government,” the premier said June 3.

In any shuffle, there are casualties and Ford is poised to put as many as two ministers in the “penalty box” over transgressions that emerged during the campaign.

Tourism Minister Lisa MacLeod and Associate Digital Government Minister Kaleed Rasheed earned his ire when it emerged they had received payments from their riding associations to supplement their salaries.

“I wasn’t too happy,” the premier said last month when the payouts made headlines, warning he would take a “good, hard look at these rules and tighten them up.”

While Rasheed did well rolling out Ontario’s digital vaccine passport and could be spared, MacLeod hurt her chances of remaining in cabinet by feuding with the families of children with autism during the writ period.

She also kept out the media from her victory celebration on June 2, triggering a viral CTV Ottawa video that’s been viewed 166,000 times.

Another cabinet member who could be dumped is Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo, despite defeating Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca in Vaughan-Woodbridge.

“He didn’t beat anybody. Doug Ford beat the leader,” noted the third PC insider, pointing out Tibollo has already been demoted twice in previous shakeups.

Geographic considerations could cost Government and Consumer Services Minister Ross Romano, from Sault Ste. Marie, his cabinet seat.

“You can’t really have four ministers from Northern Ontario,” said the second Tory, referring to Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli, Northern Development and Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford, and Pirie, a popular Timmins mayor who toppled 32-year NDP MPP Gilles Bisson.

“So Ross could lose out.”

Other ministers who were instrumental in the electoral triumph are being singled out for praise by Ford’s inner circle.

Both Labour Minister Monte McNaughton, key in the “Big Blue Collar Machine” push to attract unionized workers, and Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop are being lauded for all they did during the campaign.

“(Attorney General) Doug Downey wouldn’t be an MPP if it weren’t for Jill,” said the second Tory, referring to Dunlop dispatching scores of her supporters to help Downey, who only won Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte by 296 votes, on June 2.

“Both Jill and Monte were great team players and that gets noticed.”

Aside from cabinet-making, the premier’s team is at work on a throne speech outlining the government’s agenda, which is expected to be delivered later this summer.

After that, the Tories will reintroduce and enact Bethlenfalvy’s April 28 budget with some minor tweaks.

Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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