The Conservative Opposition has named its “shadow cabinet” with some 74 Members of Parliament. More than half of the caucus is named to a critic role making it one of the largest “shadow cabinets” ever!
This concept of the “shadow cabinet” comes from Britain where opposition parties name an MP who will be responsible for “shadowing” a Minister and taking the lead on questioning and debating matters in the Minister’s portfolio. The “shadow cabinet” also usually serves as the key leadership team for the development of policy and strategy by the opposition party.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal cabinet has just 39 members including 10 who are Secretaries of State without full cabinet rank.
Speculation is that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre – who is currently without a seat in the House of Commons- chose to name so many of his MP’s as critics to help build loyalty against any attempt to challenge him as party leader after loosing both the April 28th election (which he had long been expected to win) and his own seat of Carleton.
As to the two key Ministries of Health and Environment for our industry, Mr. Don Mazier a second term MP from the Manitoba constituency of Riding Mountain was named Health Critic, while newly elected MP Ellis Ross from British Columbia’s Skeena-Buckley Valley constituency was named as Environment critic.
Mr. Mazier has a had a long career in the agricultural sector before being elected to Parliament in 2021 including serving as President of the Keystone Agricultural Producers, Manitoba’s largest agricultural organization.
Mr. Ross has previously served as a Member of the British Columbia Legislature including holding the portfolio of Minster for Natural Gas Development in the Government of Premier Christy Clark.
CA will be reaching out to both MPs over the next few months to introduce ourselves and the issues important to our industry.
A complete list of the Conservative Opposition Leadership and Shadow Cabinet can be found HERE.
