What’s behind the Liberals’ massive cabinet shuffle?

In today’s Big Story Podcast, cabinet shuffles ahead of a fall session of Parliament aren’t unusual, but yesterday’s changes which saw most of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ministers switch roles or exit cabinet altogether definitely are. All told 30 of 38 positions were shifted, and seven ministers were dropped entirely.

Cormac Mac Sweeney is the Parliament Hill reporter for CityNews. He said a shuffle of this size is pretty unique, and the reason for the significant change comes down to a threat posed by the Conservative Party.

“The Conservatives are eating their lunch at the poll. The latest abacus data poll has the Conservatives 10 points ahead of the liberals. So clearly something needed to change, even if the Prime Minister isn’t going to admit it,” said Mac Sweeney.

So are they chasing fresh voices and new perspectives? “Listening to Canadians,” as Trudeau put it in his announcement Wednesday? Or even preparing for an election? We’ll look at who’s in, who’s out and what it all means both for the upcoming session and for the next election, whenever that is.

You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify.

You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.