Ford loses cabinet minister as Mulroney announces resignation

Ajouté : 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Ontario Premier Doug Ford is losing a key member of his cabinet. Caroline Maloney is leaving her post as Treasury Board President on June the 5th and resigning her seat in the Ontario legislature that will trigger a bi-election in the writing of York Simco. In her letter to constituents, Maroon said, "Two years ago, I lost my father. Last year, my husband Andrew and I became empty nesters.

[00:00:31]These are the kinds of moments that clarify what matters. Together, they have led me to the conclusion that now is the right time to step back from elected life and begin a new chapter, one I am genuinely excited about. Here's Ford talking about it. Caroline is a champion for fiscal responsibility and for franophhone communities across the province and I just want to thank her for her hard work and for carrying on her legacy of public service that her father Brian began. I want to wish Caroline and her family all the very best as she moves on to the next chapter. She came over to the house yesterday. We had a a great conversation. What people don't realize uh our families were very good friends.

[00:01:17]is a very good friend of Caroline and and her dad and uh and she wants to just focus on her on her family moving forward. But uh I think the world of Caroline for the premier, this comes amidst sinking poll numbers, the embarrassing selloff of a government plane, and a legal setback in his bid not to release private records.

[00:01:39]Conservative Party leader Pierre Palv has restated his position on sex change operations for kids. He says his party came out against the idea three years ago and nothing has changed.

[00:01:51]>> The policy of the Conservative Party is adopted by our national convention in Quebec City 3 years ago is that there should be no irreversible sex changes for kids. Period. That is our policy and and I support that policy.

[00:02:06]>> Pol has also come out against biological males competing in women's sports. He says it's a matter of fairness.

[00:02:14]MP Nate Erskin Smith has lost his bid for an appeal following a failed bid for a provincial nomination in the writing of Scar Bro Southwest. That's in Ontario. In a letter, the Liberal Party of Ontario dismissed a complaint, his complaint, alleging voting irregularities during the nominating meeting earlier this month. Erskin Smith lost to pizza entrepreneur Abjunal Hafi by 19 votes. It's time to modernize Canada's rules on nicotine. Alternatives to cigarettes like heated tobacco, vaping products, and oral smokeless products don't burn tobacco or produce smoke. Now, they aren't risk-free, but the growing body of scientific evidence shows that they have the potential to be substantially less harmful than smoking cigarettes. Now, despite this, Canadians are banned from accessing this critical information and sometimes even banned from the products. Nicotine pouches remain banned in convenience stores across the country and current laws ban communication about the risk of these products compared to cigarettes. It's absolutely ridiculous. The evidence is here. The tools exist. Canadians deserve to have the freedom to know about them, to learn about them, to even just understand them. It's a free country. we should be able to have this information.

[00:03:35]So, learn more about this campaign and our friends over at Unsmoke by visiting their website, unsmoke.ca.

[00:03:42]And thank you so much to Unsmoke for sponsoring this episode.

[00:03:46]>> Our guest today is Toronto Sun columnist Brian Lily, who can also be found on Substack at brianl.com. Check it out today. Welcome once again, Brian.

[00:03:55]>> Oh, thanks for having me, Mark. All right, Premier Ford losing a key member of his cabinet, Caroline Mul Rooney, announcing that she's going to be leaving her post as a Treasury Board President. That's going to happen on June the 5th. There's going to be a bi-election, I guess, for in her writing of uh York Simco. What can we read in there uh about her departure at this particular time? Well, I could be a dupe once again, which I have been in the past. Often you hear politicians saying they want to leave because they want to spend more time with their family. And I'll admit I was duped by Sean Fraser when he said that. Um, you know, when he was leaving the Trudeau government, then he suddenly decided he didn't like his family and was running again. But, you know, I looked at Fraser and he had a couple of young kids and it's hard being far away. In in the case of Caroline Maloney, um, I don't think this is a woman that has leadership ambitions at the moment or at all. uh she ran for the leadership uh with some pressure on her back in 2018 for the Ontario PCs, but since then and since the election, she has just been content to be a quiet team player inside the Ford government and she is regarded as one of the most competent ministers. She is incredibly well read on her files and everyone else's. uh when I talk to you know fellow uh caucus or cabinet members when I talk to bureaucrats or political staffers about her they've always said the same thing this goes back years she will be the most well read well briefed minister in the room and that's really important for Treasury Board because most people who don't work in government don't know what Treasury Board is you know you've got the finance department that puts out the budget but to get something in the budget you've got to take it to Treasury Board and Treasury Board is literally a board. So, she's the president of the board and there's other members of cabinet and caucus in there and they will examine things and if you show up with a halfbaked idea while Carolyn Mal Rooney is chairing a Treasury Board meeting, good luck.

[00:05:56]You're going to get grilled and you're going to get bounced back. You're going to be told no or come back when it's ready. So, in that sense, Doug Ford is facing a big loss here. This is one of the more competent people on his team, very loyal to him. Also very loyal to Pierre Polyv and the Federal Conservatives despite that rift between the Ford team and the Polyv team. So it it's a big loss for her, but I don't believe that she's, you know, exiting to, you know, go on. People keep saying that, you know, it's either going to be Ben Mal Rooney or Mark Mal Rooney or Caroline Maroon is going to try and run to take out Pure Palev. All three of them are extremely loyal to Pierre Polyv to the federal party. Mark Money was one of the biggest fundraisers on Bay Street for him. So, will one of them run if the jobs open one day? Maybe. But she said in her statement that, you know, her dad died two years ago. Uh her kids have left the house. Her and her husband are empty nesters. Her mother's moved from Montreal to Toronto. And my understanding, you know, I haven't talked to her about this. I haven't talked to her siblings about this. My understanding is that she's looking after her mother a lot more. She's in her 80s. Um, we all know what that's like, right? We all we all deal with this uh as your parents get older. So, I I truly do think that she is leaving to spend time with family. She told reporters at Queens Park earlier today, maybe she'll be back in a few years, but right now she wants to go and and spend some time. She had a good eight-year run. I'm going to take her at her word on this.

[00:07:28]>> Right. Maybe I need some clarity here, however, and I take your point about her mom coming to live there. But she says that her and her husband just became empty nesters. Isn't that when you have time on your hands? I mean, you want to spend time with your family, and you know this as a parent, when your kids are home because of course you have access to those people, not when they're away living their lives. So, I I found that sort of interesting, but >> but but I think it's more on the side of looking after her mother.

[00:08:00]>> Okay.

[00:08:01]>> So, you know, that that that that's how I'm reading it. Um I haven't seen any public statements. No one's been whispering about, oh, she's organizing.

[00:08:11]And I know all of her team who helped organize her 2018 campaign, and none of them are saying, hey, we're getting the band back together.

[00:08:19]But the premier is having his difficulties right now. So if people are going to start leaving, you know, it's not hard to read certain things into it.

[00:08:28]I mean, he's got sinking poll numbers.

[00:08:30]No, numbers are not that great. Haven't been good for a while now. Maybe you've seen some better ones recently, but I haven't. You've got the embarrassing selloff of the government plane. You've got his uh this legal setback uh not to release private records. And I realize that's a global news uh issue which I I know you want to address, but the premier himself is not going through a great time right now and he's undoubtedly facing some pressure from inside his own party. Is that fair or not? So, here's what I'll say about this. He has had some really rough weeks. The whole plane fiasco uh was not good. And yet I'm just pulling up 338canada.com, the polling aggregator, and you know, the fact is if an election were held today, Doug Ford would most likely win another majority. So yes, his poll numbers are down, but he is three to five points ahead of the other guys. And that's the leaderless liberals. Once the liberals get a leader, that changes everything. We saw this, we've seen this in the past with during the Harper years when the federal liberals didn't have a leader. They become more popular suddenly. Oh, you don't have that Stefan Deion Bozo in there anymore. We like you again. You don't have Michael Ignatius in there, we like you again. You get another leader, we're not so sure. So, this is a fairly common phenomenon in politics that I've never fully been able to understand, but it happens. Uh, I thought Doug Ford's poll numbers would have taken a bigger hit. these problems with uh freedom of information, FOI, being a drip drip drip. I wonder if that's going to wear on him eventually, but you know, it hasn't so far. Um, you know, he he's down from 44% in polls earlier to 39% now, and 39% still gets you a majority. He seems adamant on running for a fourth majority, for a fourth term. I would advise against it, but um you know, Doug Ford doesn't listen to me. His wife reads my columns all the time and leaves them on the kitchen table for him. Uh especially the ones where I criticize him, but you know, Ford's not listening to me.

[00:10:45]>> Well, 41% didn't get uh your polyva victory.

[00:10:51]You know, I mean, I >> Well, the NDP went down to 5% in Ontario in that election. The NDP in Ontario right now is at about 17% and the Liberals are in the low to mid30s. Um, and if they elect Nathaniel Erskin Smith as their leader, uh, they will fall further.

[00:11:09]There is the matter of people just getting tired of you. And you know this having watched politics for decades.

[00:11:15]People just it's like like what happened with Harper, right? I mean, he wasn't doing a bad job as prime minister, but people wanted a fresh face in there and they moved on. And so maybe that's a factor. And there are some conservatives, some PCs who feel that Doug Ford could be more conservative. I mean, he hasn't run a balanced budget since he's been in there and he's had opportunities to do so. It's just the overall state of the finances in the province is a concern among some people.

[00:11:44]I'm just wondering if there isn't an element of disgruntlement amongst people who would like Doug Ford to be quote more conservative. So there's kind of two factions on that. There's this group called Project Ontario and they keep saying Doug Ford isn't conservative enough. And yet the issues that uh they tend to be very libertarian leaning and the issues that a lot of people that I hear from that want Doug Ford to be more conservative on like getting the woke out of the education system um they wouldn't want that. They they just want like give us pure housing policy that allows a six-story building in my lane way. Um, you know, so Ford's benefiting because the people that want him out or want him to be more conservative aren't united. His opposition is um fractured. Uh, you know, there's no united progressive front against him.

[00:12:42]You know, you use the Steven Harper analogy. By 2013, Steven Harper was effectively done. We can see that in hindsight. Uh, and maybe we should have seen it at the time. and didn't the Manitoba bi-election um in Brandon Surus back in was late 2013 or early 2014 the Conservatives had to pour so much money into that just to hold on to a seat that should have been an easy one for them that should have been a warning sign for Steven Harper. So look, Doug Ford is one year into a four or fiveyear mandate. He got rid of the f fixed election date law that well no government had to follow anyway because it's not worth the paper it's printed on. Doesn't matter who's in charge.

[00:13:26]Those you know the first line in them actually says that none of this changes the constitution which says you can go 5 years. So if in one or two years time the warning signs are there if he's not able to turn this around then he should really seriously think about leaving. As I said, I don't advise going to a four-year term, another uh fourth mandate. I don't think it's wise. Leave on a high note, but he seems determined.

[00:13:54]So, you know, does it continue to wear the green belt scandal had him down at about 31 32%.

[00:14:03]The plane and the FOI stuff has got him down to 39 in the most recent polls. I think the most recent Leger poll and that's Post Media's polling company 39%.

[00:14:16]So again, still winning a majority, but what I've been saying for a while is this seems and feels like a government without a purpose.

[00:14:27]And if he's going to turn it around, he has to find a purpose. Again, when he was first elected, he was for the people. Then he, you know, last election he won on protect Ontario uh during the height of mania over Donald Trump and the tariffs. That's still there to a good degree and we see that in the federal numbers like Mark Carney with a 12-point lead over Pierre Paul and the conservatives. What's driving that?

[00:14:52]Donald Trump. So, you know, can he ride that horse again? I wouldn't think so.

[00:14:58]But Carney's finding a way to do it.

[00:15:01]There's just so much uh influx in politics at the moment, including the fact that Merritt Styles has been the lead on this plane issue and on the FOI.

[00:15:11]She has been the lead prosecutor.

[00:15:14]And there's some viewers right now saying, "Who's Merritt Styles?" She's the leader of the NDP. She's the leader of the official opposition, and you wouldn't know it. We talk more about prospective candidates for the Ontario Liberal leadership. So she, despite being the lead on prosecuting Ford on these things that have brought him down in the polls, is stuck at 17%.

[00:15:36]And we don't know who the liberals are going to get. Could it be Nathaniel Erskin Smith? He's a maverick. He's more left than the NDP. Could it be Nav Deep Baines? Um, he's a good organizer, I'm told, but he would also wear some of the Justin Trudeau legacy. He was the innovation minister in charge of superclusters that were going to transform the economy. Mark, can you find me a supercluster, please? So there's, you know, Jean Cretchan benefited. He had a very long run because he had weak opposition. Doug Ford has had very weak opposition.

[00:16:11]That's not going to last forever and eventually he'll face someone real. And there's a a great line that uh our old friend Cy Tanik who has been Doug Ford's campaign manager gave to me. He was talking about Justin Trudeau, not about his guy, but he said, "Every day you're in government, you're wearing a backpack and every day you get up and there's another stone dropped in your backpack and eventually the backpack becomes too heavy.

[00:16:37]Eventually Ford will get to that point.

[00:16:38]Is that now? Is that in two years? Is that after the next mandate? We just don't know.

[00:16:45]Well, if he waits too long, then it'll be to the detriment of his party. But I I also want to ask you, um Ford, you can make the case, has kind of hitched his wagon to Carney. You know, he's always talking about a great working relationship. He'll occasionally take the odd shot at him. But I mean, if Carney goes on to fail in his bid to turn the economy around to he's already broken his promise to have a deal with the Trump administration like last July and we've got the Cusma negotiations coming up. If all of this fails, if it blows up in his face and we're not able really to live in a new world order where maybe the Americans don't matter as much to us, could Bour's cozy relationship with Carney hurt him politically?

[00:17:35]Well, it hurts him with part of the right-wing base, but not with middle-of the road voters. And to win as a conservative in Ontario, you need those middle-of the road voters. And those folks are still in love with Carney.

[00:17:49]They think Carney's doing a great job.

[00:17:51]They think that he's actually building new trading relationships. I hear about it every time I write something that says, "Well, this isn't working out."

[00:17:58]Oh, no. It's great. Didn't you see we have got a great deal with India? What did the India deal get us? Nothing. But um you know this uh just continues on with people thinking that Carney's doing a great job. And some I was at an event recently and somebody said, "Well, when will people clue in that Carney is not doing a great job?" I said, "Look, this is like trying to convince your 17-year-old daughter that her boyfriend's no good for her, but she's in love with them and she's not going to listen to you until she wakes up one day and says, "Me, this guy's not working for me." So the good chunk of the Canadian public, you look at the abacus data numbers, 59% think the country is heading in the right direction or 57% think country is heading in the right direction. 59% have a positive approval of Mark Carney. So that's not hurting Doug Ford at the moment except maybe those Ontario Liberal numbers. Again, Ontario Liberals have no leader, but they're up in the polls most likely because of the Carney effect. Just like when Trudeau was still in power, that was hammering. You can talk to Bonnie Krombi or any of the Ontario Liberals.

[00:19:06]Trudeau was dragging them down. Well, now Carney's boosting them up. Uh but if thing well, just before I get into if things go sour, uh Ford, this isn't getting much attention yet, but Ford has joined the lawsuit. Ontario is now an intervenor in the lawsuit to shut down the so-called gun buyback program uh joining I believe the other two Albert Alberta and Saskatchewan. This is the uh Canadian Coalition for Firearms Right lawsuit that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear. So that's a a shot against Carney. And last week he's standing next to Melanie Jolie and Sue St. Marie and he says protect your guns.

[00:19:46]Don't give them up. I couldn't stop laughing at that.

[00:19:51]But if Carney is no longer useful to him, he'll throw him overboard. You know, he's uh he can be a pretty ruthless politician, uh so can Mark Carney. Mark Carney's adapted to politics far better than I ever expected. Uh and but if Carney is no longer useful, you'll throw him overboard. The uh the push last October to get a deal by Carney did not include autos. Doug Ford fought against that deal being accepted because it was just going to lift tariffs on aluminum and steel, but not autos. He went to the mattresses against Carne over that. Now, I don't believe that the ad was actually the reason that the Americans called off trade talks. That's a bit of a red herring in my view. um as I've reported and as Politico recently reported had a lot more to do with the feds imposing tariffs on GM installantis products coming into Canada and threatening to sue them. Um dumb moves to make in the middle of tense negotiations but yeah for you know Ford will he'll shive them.

[00:21:00]>> Interesting. Brian, thank you so much for coming on the show. How do people find you online? Uh, Brian Lily onx, BrianLilly on Facebook, or brianly.com.

[00:21:11]>> Thank you so much, sir.

[00:21:13]>> Joe, consider supporting independent journalism by becoming a premier member of Juno News. Please go to junwe.comstraightup.

[00:21:22]You can find the link below. It helps us do what we do. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time.