Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet has taken shape without 11 of the ministers he brought around the table barely two months ago.
On the outs are former defence minister Bill Blair, former president of the Treasury Board Ginette Petitpas Taylor and former energy and natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson.
All of those experienced ministers held numerous posts under former prime minister Justin Trudeau and remained in Carney’s first cabinet.
Three other MPs that Carney only elevated to cabinet on March 14 have been removed: Nova Scotia MP Kody Blois and Ontario MPs Arielle Kayabaga and Ali Ehsassi.
Carney also chose to drop some ministers appointed by Trudeau late last year and had remained in cabinet until now: Winnipeg MP Terry Duguid, Toronto MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Quebec MPs Élisabeth Brière and Rachel Bendayan
And former minister and Ontario MP for Brampton West, Kamal Khera, failed to win her seat in last month’s election.
She first joined cabinet as minister of seniors in 2021.
Trudeau then moved Khera to the role of minister of diversity, inclusion and persons with disabilities in 2023 before Carney shifted her once again, making her health minister.
Here is a deeper look at some of the ministers not returning to cabinet.
Wilkinson — who was reappointed as minister of energy and natural resources when Carney swore in his first cabinet — was first elected to the B.C. riding of North Vancouver in 2015.
Re-elected in 2019 and 2021, Wilkinson won a fourth term in the redrawn riding of North Vancouver-Capilano last month.
He served as parliamentary secretary to the minister of Environment and Climate Change starting in December 2015, but was soon promoted to cabinet.
In 2018, he was made minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard before being made the minister of environment and climate change in 2019.
He was made minister of natural resources in 2021, and minister of energy and natural resources in 2023.
In a statement posted on his X account, Wilkinson thanked both Carney and Trudeau, along with the voters who put him into office, for giving him the chance to serve in cabinet.
“Four times you have placed your trust in me to represent your interests and lead with purpose here in the riding but also on the national and international stages,” he said. “It has been and remains the privilege of a lifetime.”
Tim Hodgson is the new minister of energy and natural resources.
Blair was first elected as the Ontario MP for Scarborough Southwest in the 2015 federal election, and was re-elected in 2019, 2021 and 2025.
In 2023, Blair, a former police chief, took over the defence portfolio from Anita Anand, after serving as the minister for emergency preparedness from October 2021 until July 2023.
Before that he sat at the cabinet table, including as minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, and as minister of border security and organized crime reduction.
He has also served as the president of the King’s Privy Council of Canada.
David McGuinty, the former public safety minister, is the new minister of national defence.
Petitpas Taylor won the New Brunswick riding of Moncton-Riverview-Dieppe in 2015, 2019 and 2021. She won her fourth straight election last month in the reconstituted riding of Moncton-Dieppe.
She has been an active committee member in Parliament, chairing the subcommittee on procedure and House affairs.
Shortly after the 2015 election Trudeau made her deputy government whip before elevating her to health minister in August 2017. She was dropped from cabinet the first time in 2019.
Petitpas Taylor returned to cabinet in 2021 and went on to preside over a number of ministries including official languages, veterans affairs and employment, workforce development and official languages.
Trudeau made Petitpas Taylor president of the Treasury Board in December, a role she kept when Carney unveiled his first cabinet in March.
Shafqat Ali is the new president of the Treasury Board.
Kayabaga served as Carney’s Government House Leader — while Parliament wasn’t sitting — and is one of the cabinet members being dropped after sitting at the top table for barely two months.
In a statement posted on X, she said that while she won’t be returning to cabinet, she remains “deeply honoured to have had the opportunity to serve as a member” of Carney’s team.
Kayabaga was first elected in the Ontario riding of London West in the 2021 federal election, leaving behind a seat on the London city council to make the jump to Parliament.
Kayabaga came to Canada as an 11-year-old refugee with her mother and siblings after her family fled Burundi during that country’s civil war.
She sat on a number of committees including health, citizenship and immigration, science and research and official languages. Kayabaga was made parliamentary secretary to the minister of small business in February 2025 by Trudeau.
Carney elevated her to serve as the Government House Leader and minister of democratic institutions in his March 14 cabinet.
Former labour minister Steven MacKinnon is the new leader of the Government in the House of Commons.
Erskine-Smith developed a reputation as a bit of a maverick MP over the last decade demonstrating that he is unafraid to vote against his Liberal colleagues when he felt his party’s legislative offering was out of step with his values.
First elected to the Toronto riding of Beaches-East York in 2015, and re-elected in 2019 and 2021, Erskine-Smith launched a leadership bid for the Ontario Liberal Party in 2023.
A year after coming in second to Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, he announced that he would not defend his Beaches-East York seat.
In December, Trudeau named him as his new housing minister after Nova Scotia MP Sean Fraser announced he, too, would not be running again.
When Carney announced his March cabinet, Erskine-Smith held onto the housing file. Fraser and Erskine-Smith both changed their minds about running in the 2025 federal election and subsequently won their respective seats.
Fraser returned to cabinet as the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada. The new housing minister is former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson.
