Ontario cabinet change: Leche left the Ministry of Education

In a provincial cabinet reshuffle, Education Minister Stephen Leche was named Energy Minister and former Housing Minister Steve Clark was named Leader of the House of Representatives on Thursday. Leche, who has been the Minister of Education since 2019, will head the Ministry of Energy and Electricity, and Todd Smith, who is a member of the provincial parliament, will become the new Minister of Education.

Other notable cabinet changes include new member of provincial parliament Natalia Kusendova-Bashta replacing Stan Cho as long-term care minister, and Stan Cho as the new tourism, culture and sports minister. Neil Lumsden will be tourism minister from 2022. , culture and sports, but now he will only be the minister of sports. One of the new faces in the cabinet is Mike Harris, the son of the former prime minister, and he will take over the red tape reduction portfolio.

The ministers of health, finance, colleges and universities and the environment are among those who remain in place and have not changed. These changes bring the number of cabinet members to 36, which is the largest cabinet in Ontario's political history.

Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie criticized Ford's cabinet choices, including giving Clark more responsibilities and not increasing the number of women. "Doug Ford keeps his friends close and his comrades even closer," he wrote in a statement. He created the biggest cabinet in history using your money, but only nine women work in it.

The full list of changes are:

Steve Clarke, Leader of the House of Government
Todd Smith, Secretary of Education
Stefan Leche, Minister of Energy and Electricity
Natalia Kusendova-Bashta, Minister of Long-Term Care
Todd McCarthy, Minister of Public and Commercial Services Delivery and Procurement
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Greg Rickford
Stan Chu, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Games
Graydon Smith, Secretary of Natural Resources
Neil Lumsden, Sports Minister
Lisa Thompson, Minister for Rural Affairs
Mike Harris, Minister for Red Tape
The last cabinet reshuffle came in September 2023, when Labor Secretary Monte McNaughton announced he was leaving politics to work in the private sector.

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