By James Peters

Kamloops MP McLeod not pleased with O’Regan’s move to Indigenous Services post

Jan 14, 2019 | 3:25 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle this morning left her scratching her head.

After Scott Brison’s announcement last week that he was leaving politics, Trudeau shifted Jane Philpott from Indigenous Services to Treasury Board to take Brison’s place.

That left a hole at Indigenous Services, where Truedeau moved Seamus O’Regan.

McLeod is the Conservative Party of Canada’s critic for the Indigenous Affairs portfolio, and says the addition of O’Regan doesn’t bode well.

“I was very surprised when he took a newer, inexperienced minister who clearly has challenges in the Veterans Affairs portfolio and put him into Indigenous Services. Certainly a surprise to have someone junior, someone a little bit inexperienced taking over a key priority file,” said McLeod.

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O’Regan, a former television personality, drew the ire of veterans by comparing his own career departing journalism to soldiers leaving the Canadian military.

McLeod says that was a big misstep.

“Communication is key in Veterans Affairs; it’s also very key in Indigenous Services,” said McLeod. “Comments like comparing his leaving media to what veterans experience leaving war zones, I think really didn’t sound well for the veterans. They didn’t like that.”

Trudeau also shuffled a prominent BC-based cabinet minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, from Justice to Veterans Affairs.

McLeod says that’s another head-scratcher.

“When Jody Wilson-Raybould was put in that portfolio, it was lauded across the country. It was certainly lauded within the Indigenous community to have one of their own in such a high profile cabinet position. [Today’s move to Veterans Affairs] was a move that didn’t really make any sense to me.”

Quebec MP David Lametti was promoted to justice minister, while Nova Scotia MP Bernadette Jordan takes over a new portfolio, Minister of Rural Economic Development.