Poilievre shuffles Conservative front bench, names Michael Chong finance critic
The Opposition leader rotates his shadow cabinet for the first time since last year's election loss, as Conservatives trail Liberals by roughly 10 points.
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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is reshuffling his front bench, moving long-serving MP Michael Chong into the key position of finance critic. Chong, who has represented the Ontario riding of Wellington-Halton Hills North since 2004, steps down after nearly six years as foreign-affairs critic.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Chong said he plans to focus on economic data to argue that the Carney Liberals are failing Canadians. "What I've been observing over the last 15 months of this Carney government is an economy that continues on the trajectory it had under the previous Trudeau government," he said. "I think my job is to make that case, because I think unless the government changes course, Canadians are going to continue to struggle as they have been for years."
The shuffle is the first major front-bench overhaul since Poilievre formed his shadow cabinet after last year's election. Poilievre's office confirmed a wide-ranging reshuffle will be announced Tuesday but declined to specify other changes. The previous finance critic was Calgary MP Jasraj Singh Hallan.
The move comes as the Conservatives face mounting pressure to demonstrate they have learned from last year's loss. The gap between Poilievre's party and Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals has widened in recent months, with recent polls placing the Conservatives roughly 10 percentage points behind.
Chong is part of a small cohort: Conservative MPs who served when the party last held power under Stephen Harper. He was a cabinet minister under Harper and ran for party leadership in 2017. In 2023, the Liberal government expelled a Chinese diplomat after he was caught gathering intelligence on Chong and his family in retaliation for the MP's criticism of China.
Chong said he did not explicitly request the move but is happy to serve in whatever capacity he is asked. "One of the most fundamental powers of Parliament is the power over the purse," he said. "That function is central to what Parliament does, and my job is to critique the government's economic policies, including its taxation and spending policies."
