Trudeau minister heads for Quebec

Rodriguez's move to head up provincial Liberals makes another federal cabinet shuffle likely

- ALEX BALLINGALL, RAISA PATEL AND TONDA MACCHARLES

Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez is leaving cabinet, but is expected to remain an MP while he seeks the provincial Quebec Liberal leadership.

Fresh off a stinging byelection loss in a longtime Liberal bastion in Montreal, the party’s veteran Quebec lieutenant is leaving to run for the party’s provincial leadership.

The move by Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez will leave a hole in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet — and likely lead to another cabinet shuffle just two months after another minister Seamus O’Regan left — and comes as the Liberal minority government enters a vulnerable stretch in which it will need the support of an opposition party to avoid triggering a federal election.

Rodriguez confirmed his departure Wednesday.

“Officially, I am announcing it tomorrow,” Rodriguez said upon leaving the Commons late Wednesday.

Rodriguez is stepping out of cabinet but is expected to remain as an MP while he seeks the provincial Quebec Liberal leadership.

Two senior government sources told the Star earlier that Rodriguez told the Quebec Liberal caucus on Wednesday morning that he intends to resign from cabinet to run for the provincial leadership. Rodriguez will formally announce his decision on Thursday in Gatineau, Que., the city directly across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill.

The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment.

Fellow Quebec Liberals downplayed any connection between Rodriguez’s departure and Monday’s byelection defeat in LaSalleÉmard-Verdun, a long-safe Liberal riding on the Island of Montreal that fell to the separatist Bloc Québécois.