Today Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne shuffled her cabinet. The shuffle comes in advance of the provincial election confirmed by Elections Ontario to take place on June 7, 2018.

Details of Shuffle

Certain ministers holding key cabinet positions have announced they will not be seeking re-election in this year’s election. As a result, Premier Wynne has shuffled her cabinet to ensure those running for re-election may demonstrate their strengths in advance of the election and to ensure key cabinet roles are filled by those who have stated they will be seeking re-election for Ontario Liberals.

Cabinet appears to be getting younger, more diverse, and closing in on gender balance - there will now be 13 women, including the Premier, and 16 men in the Executive Council.

The details of the shuffle are as follows:

Those prominent Liberal MPPs not seeking re-election are as follows:

Analysis

In this shuffle, many of the ministers involved represent important ridings in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), which will be a key battleground in the upcoming election.

Premier Wynne last shuffled her cabinet in July 2017 with moves to replace Glen Murray who left as Minister of the Environment to become the Executive Director of the Pembina Institute. Chris Ballard became the Minister of Environment, and Peter Milczyn was promoted to take over Ballard’s former post as Minister of Housing.
The 2^nd Session of the 41^st Parliament in Ontario is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, February 20, 2018.

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