The resignation of Linda Jeffrey, minister of municipal affairs and housing, clearing the way for her to run for mayor of Brampton, sparked a cabinet mini-shuffle last week, one in which lawyers figured prominently.
There are currently only eight lawyers in the entire 107-member Ontario legislature, with six of them in the government Liberal caucus. The cabinet mini-shuffle, meanwhile, involved five Liberal MPPs, and three of those are lawyers.
First, Madeleine Meilleur, who was formerly minister of community safety and correctional services, as well as minister responsible for francophone affairs, was shuffled to attorney general, retaining the francophone affairs portfolio.
Meilleur has an interesting back story. She was born in a tiny town called Kiamika in northern Quebec. She was a registered nurse working in a hospital in Ottawa when she enrolled in law school. She studied law during the day then worked night shifts in the hospital as a nurse. She went to become a labour lawyer and was elected as a council member in Vanier in 1991. She was first elected to the Ontario Legislature in 2003.
Meilleur is the first francophone MPP to become attorney general. There has only been one previous woman to hold the attorney general portfolio: Marion Boyd, who was attorney general during the NDP government.
John Gerretsen was shuffled out of the attorney general portfolio but stays on as Cabinet Chair, a position formerly held by Linda Jeffrey. Gerretsen, who is from Kingston, has announced he is not running in the next election.
The third lawyer figuring in the mini-shuffle is Yasir Naqvi, formerly the minister of labour. Naqvi is very well well-known to OBA members as a former chair of the Young Lawyers Division. He is now the minister of community safety and correctional services, taking over from Madeleine Meilleur.
The two non-lawyers in the mini-shuffle are Kevin Flynn and Bill Mauro. Both are cabinet newbies.
Flynn, the MPP from Oakville, enters cabinet for the first time as minister of labour. Flynn is a business person and was formerly a municipal councillor before entering the legislature in 2003.
Mauro, the MPP for Thunder Bay, enters cabinet for the first time as minister of municipal affairs and housing. He graduated from teacher’s college at Lakehead University and worked as a property manager before becoming elected to the legislature for the first time in 2003.
Jeffrey’s resignation means there will need to be a byelection in Brampton, that is, if a general election does not happen first.