This week will be a milestone one for some lawmakers at Queen’s Park.
Following the Feb. 27 election that the Progressive Conservatives won with their third straight majority, Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet will be sworn in on Wednesday afternoon at the Royal Ontario Museum. Meanwhile, throughout the week, MPPs’ swearing-in ceremonies are also being held.
Official Opposition Leader Marit Stiles will be sworn in Wednesday, and the Ontario NDP’s three new MPPs started taking their oaths Monday.
The swearing-in ceremonies mark an important step toward elected officials being able to take their seats within the legislature — though this won’t happen until next month, with the legislature set to return on April 14.
Meanwhile, Conservative strategists and sources The Trillium spoke with said they expect few major shakeups at Wednesday's cabinet swearing-in ceremony.
Asked about this at Queen's Park on Tuesday, Ford just said his role is to put the "best ministers" in each area to move the PCs' agenda forward based on the mandate his party received.
The premier said while he'll continue directly dealing with the tariffs issue, it'll be a multi-ministerial effort.
Ford's cabinet, going into the February election, was the largest in the province’s history, with 37 members, including the premier himself.
Asked on March 3 whether he’d trim his cabinet, Ford told reporters, "No, I don't think so.” But he did say he might rejig things.
"We're going to sit down, review everything," he said. "Are we going to switch a few things? Maybe. So let's see what happens. I want the best players on the ice. The problem is, when you have 80 players that are all the best players, that's the toughest decision you have to make in being premier."
Laryssa Waler, founder of Henley Strategies, said she doesn't expect Ford to make too many changes to his existing cabinet.
"Doug Ford ran on a message of, 'my team, status quo, I'm the steady hand at the helm, I'm the guy who has been uniting Canada and can continue to unite Canada,'" said Waler, who is also a former executive director of communications for Ford. "I don't think any of that is a message of change, so I would be surprised to see change."
Waler said choosing a cabinet is "not just swapping around the chairs."
"Putting together cabinet has so many variables and data points that the premier and his team will consider," she said.
Regional representation, skills and experience are some of these things, said Waler, arguing that these criteria could apply to all the PCs elected.
When thinking about switching or keeping someone in a particular role, the premier would also consider any negotiations or deals a particular minister is involved in, and the implications of moving that individual out of the role, said Waler.
“Sometimes it makes sense to change them, often it doesn't,” she added.
The minister of economic development, job creation and trade, a title currently held by Vic Fedeli, is one example of a role focused on building strong external and stakeholder relationships, Waler noted.
"A minister like Vic Fedeli is at any given point engaged in many different negotiations on many different fronts, all designed to bring economic investment into the province," she said. "So when the premier is looking at his cabinet, he's going to factor in that 'this is the individual who is right now in the middle of negotiations. Does it serve me to change him?'"
It's a similar case with Stephen Lecce, minister of energy and electrification, who is "out there talking about … how strong Canada's nuclear industry is," Waler said.
"Would I be surprised if those roles changed? It's hard to say. I would imagine that if those roles did change, there was a reason for that," she said. "From everything we can see in the public sphere, those are two examples of two ministers who seem to be doing a very good job and who seem to be establishing relationships with their counterparts globally, all designed to attract investment and economic activity back to the province."
Ultimately, the premier is going to "build a cabinet that reflects this moment in time," said Waler.
"Right now the biggest threat is the tariff threat," she said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods and energy. "He's going to design a cabinet with the right people in the right roles at the right time."
All of Ford’s ministers who ran in the most recent election campaign won their seats and are returning to Queen’s Park.
One minister, Michael Ford, who the premier appointed as his minister of citizenship and multiculturalism in 2022, announced in January that he wanted to “take on a new chapter in my life” and wouldn’t be seeking re-election.
When Michael Ford, the premier’s nephew, took a leave of absence last year, Associate Minister of Auto Theft and Bail Reform Graham McGregor stepped into the role for the interim.
These were the members of Ford's cabinet going into the 2025 election:
- Minister of Finance: Peter Bethlenfalvy
- Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: Paul Calandra
- Minister for Seniors and Accessibility: Raymond Cho
- Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming: Stan Cho
- Associate Minister of Mines: Stephen Crawford
- Attorney General: Doug Downey
- Minister of Education: Jill Dunlop
- Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade/Chair of Cabinet: Victor Fedeli
- Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness: Rob Flack
- Premier/Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs: Doug Ford
- Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism: Michael D. Ford (did not run for re-election)
- Minister of Red Tape Reduction: Mike Harris
- Associate Minister of Forestry and Forest Products: Kevin Holland
- Minister of Health/Deputy Premier: Sylvia Jones
- Associate Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response: Trevor Jones
- Solicitor General: Michael Kerzner
- Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks: Andrea Khanjin
- Minister of Long-Term Care: Natalia Kusendova-Bashta
- Minister of Energy and Electrification: Stephen Lecce
- Minister of Sport: Neil Lumsden
- Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement: Todd McCarthy (was acting environment minister
- Associate Minister of Auto Theft and Bail Reform: Graham McGregor
- President of the Treasury Board/Minister of Francophone Affairs: Caroline Mulroney
- Associate Minister of Energy-Intensive Industries: Sam Oosterhoff
- Minister of Children, Community and Social Services: Michael Parsa
- Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development: David Piccini
- Minister of Mines: George Pirie
- Minister of Colleges and Universities: Nolan Quinn
- Minister of Northern Development/Minister of Indigenous Affairs and First Nations Economic Reconciliation: Greg Rickford
- Minister of Transportation: Prabmeet Sarkaria
- Minister of Natural Resources: Graydon Smith
- Minister of Infrastructure: Kinga Surma
- Associate Minister of Small Business: Nina Tangri
- Associate Minister of Housing: Vijay Thanigasalam
- Minister of Rural Affairs: Lisa Thompson
- Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions: Michael Tibollo
- Associate Minister of Women's Social and Economic Opportunity: Charmaine Williams
-With files from Charlie Pinkerton and Katherine DeClerq