Atlantic Canada's Federal Cabinet Sextet Needs to Set the Pace and Tone
New Brunswick's Dominic LeBlanc, the One Canadian Economy Minister, and ACOA Minister Sean Fraser of Nova Scotia led the team charged with getting the East Coast to pick up the pace
It’s another calm day here on Canada’s East Coast.
Nothing but me, my thoughts and the chirps of robins, chickadees and yes, crickets, flitting about the neighbourhood.
No Stetson separatists striding about, or auto workers fearing for their future.
We’re just moseying along here at our own pace.
It's our conceit, our not-so-humble brag, that we can put in a solid day’s work, do business around the world and then turn it all off and be out on the water, in the woods or hanging with friends on a patio faster than it takes to travel three blocks during rush hour in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver.
The rest of Canada can have its MTV, we’re strictly indie alternative down here.
That’s the image we sell, as New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador are currently doing, on billboards, on the side of buses and on the pillars at the Yonge and Bloor subway stop in Toronto.
We’re the place of ‘ahhhhhhhh.’
If you’re looking for a break from our crazy, chaotic world, come East, my friends, come East.
But what if, instead of wanting to step off the ride, we want to get on?
Prime Minister Mark Carney keeps talking about moving quickly, which, for New Brunswickers who are old enough to remember, likely sounds a bit like another Brookfield director we know.
“They’ve been told it’s a sprint, not a marathon,” said former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna to the Globe and Mail earlier this week.
“Get your running shoes on.”1
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Now back to the story…
One of the members of the core team is New Brunswick’s Dominic LeBlanc, the Beausejour MP with a knack for relationship-building, who is the Minister responsible for U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs and One Canadian Economy.
I guess that makes him the coxswain setting the training regimen and pace of our race, calling out instructions to the crew to row as one.
Central Nova MP Sean Fraser is the new head of the Bank of the East Coast, the Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) as well as Attorney-General and Justice Minister. That makes him the regional political minister, negotiating the fine print on federal funding for significant infrastructure projects – like bridges, roads and overpasses.
Malpeque, PEI MP Heath MacDonald is the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, while St. John’s East MP Joanne Thompson is our new Fisheries Minister; two Atlantic ministers setting the table for Canadian food policy.
Lena Metlege Diab is Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, familiar territory for the Halifax West MP, who had the same portfolio from 2013-2021 in the Nova Scotia government of Stephen McNeil.
Rounding out the East Coast contingent is Saint John-Kennebecasis MP Wayne Long, who, after a decade on the back benches, is now the Secretary of State for the Canadian Revenue Agency and Financial Institutions. Modernizing banking and tax regulations is his task.
They’re our federal sextet, charged with leading the charge down East. They don’t just need to be our pacesetters; they need to set the tone as well.
Atlantic Canada is facing a number of complex economic, social and environmental problems right now.
Tariffs, food and housing affordability, labour force shortages, income inequality, coastal erosion, health care delivery, debt reduction, AI and digitalization (for which we have a new ministry under former journalist Evan Solomon), resource development and siting are all demanding our attention – and threatening to upend our way of life if we don’t come up with solutions, fast.
All of these problems share a common characteristic: they linger, unsolved, because of our inability to develop solutions that serve two core principles that, on the surface, are in conflict with each other.
Such as moving fast in the region that prides itself on being the place to slow down.
Now here’s the thing: neither value trumps the other.
Which is why, now more than ever, we need leaders who can work through these competing values and demands and take advantage of the new world that is forming around us.
We must stop floating along and start rowing as one.
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"Carney’s Focused on Economy as He Emphasizes Experience with New Role," The Globe and Mail, accessed May 15, 2025, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-carneys-focused-on-economy-as-he-emphasizes-experience-with-new/.