Caroline Mulroney resigning seat in Ontario legislature, citing time for new chapter

Ontario cabinet minister Caroline Mulroney announced Monday that she is resigning, citing a desire to start a new chapter.

Mulroney was elected in 2018 as part of Premier Doug Ford’s first government and has served in a number of cabinet portfolios, including attorney general, transportation, Francophone affairs, and currently, president of the Treasury Board.

Mulroney’s decision comes two years after losing her father, former prime minister Brian Mulroney, and now as she and her husband are empty nesters, she said in a public letter Monday.

“Together, they have led me to the conclusion that now is the right time to step back from elected life and begin a new chapter, one I am genuinely excited about,” Mulroney wrote.

Ford said in a statement that Mulroney is a close, personal friend and Ontario is lucky to have benefitted from her calm and steady leadership.

“Politics is in Caroline’s blood,” he wrote. “The Ontario PC Party and our conservative movement will no doubt continue to benefit from her ideas and ideals.”

Ford has tapped Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy to serve as interim president of the treasury board once Mulroney’s resignation takes effect on June 5.

Mulroney’s resignation will trigger a byelection in her riding of York-Simcoe, in addition to one in Scarborough Southwest that Ford must call by the end of summer.

Ford said Mulroney leaves a record she can be proud of, including a funding agreement for the largest expansion of public transit in North America.

Mulroney reflected fondly in her letter on her time as Francophone affairs minister, a portfolio she held through the full eight years, though it began with a bumpy start, presiding over some funding cuts in 2018.

“There is an old line in politics that the worst day in elected life is better than the best day outside of it,” she wrote in closing her letter.

“I’m not sure that’s true, but I do know that I will miss the people I have worked with over the past eight years more than you know.”

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press