That celebration sound you hear is likely coming from the Alberta Legislature, as news comes out about the fate of one of the UCP's arch enemies.
Prime minister-designate Mark Carney is reportedly planning to remove Steven Guilbeault as environment minister and place him in another portfolio instead.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s childhood buddy and a member of his wedding party, will no longer have a place in cabinet.
Greenpeace activist Guilbeault, who was famously arrested trying to scale the CN Tower in Toronto in the name of climate change, has held the environment portfolio in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet since 2021.
An unnamed source told Radio-Canada that Guilbeault learned of the news earlier this week. Guilbeault endorsed Carney during the campaign and has not commented on the matter. He did tell reporters this week that Parliament "doesn’t know how" to scrap the April 1 carbon tax hike, but they’re looking into it.
The widely unpopular consumer carbon tax was one of Guilbeault’s most championed projects—a policy Carney has evidently been trying to distance himself from.
During his Liberal leadership campaign, Carney acknowledged that the carbon tax didn’t go over very well with Canadians and said his government would look at getting rid of it—but replacing it with a corporate carbon tax, which critics argue will still place the burden on consumers.
Guilbeault, who endorsed Carney in the leadership race, earlier blamed Tory leader Pierre Poilievre for Canadians’ distaste for the carbon tax, which the Conservative leader has repeatedly pledged to “axe,” calling Poilievre’s criticism of the tax “disinformation.”
Carney plans to pare down the cabinet significantly compared to Trudeau’s 37 ministers, reducing it to only 15 to 20. However, he apparently doesn’t plan to alter the so-called key players dealing with Canada-U.S. relations, such as Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne.
"Mark Carney is proving he is just like Justin by appointing the same radical Trudeau Ministers to his cabinet to continue the same disastrous policies he has been advising the Liberals on for years," Melissa Lantsman, deputy leader of the Conservative party told the Western Standard.
"Radical activist Minister Steven Guilbeault has been the biggest cheerleader of the Carney carbon tax, even threatening to leave cabinet if it were abolished."
"Carbon Tax Carney knows his radical minister will unquestioningly impose his new shadow carbon tax on everything we make in Canada which will drive up costs for Canadian families."
"While the Carney-Trudeau Liberals focus on finding new ways to sneakily tax Canadians and make life more unaffordable for families, common sense Conservatives will axe the Carney carbon tax once and for all and bring in our massive Bring It Home Tax Cut to lower taxes on work, investment, homebuilding, energy, and making stuff in Canada."
Carney will officially be sworn in to replace Trudeau as Canada’s prime minister on Friday morning. On Friday, Trudeau will ask Gov. Gen. Mary Simon for permission to resign and recommend that Carney form a government.
