Expecting to remain in cabinet, Toronto MP dumped stock portfolio

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OTTAWA – Taking a gamble on remaining a cabinet minister didn’t pay off for one Toronto MP.

Recently-released ethics filings show Beaches-East York MP and former housing minister Nathaniel Erskine-Smith – expecting he’d be among Liberal members named to cabinet by Prime Minister Mark Carney – dumped his portfolio of stocks just days before this week’s cabinet announcement in anticipation of remaining a minister.

That call, however, never came.

First reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, the May 1 ethics commissioner filing made public on Thursday showed Erskine-Smith divested his portfolio to comply with Canadian conflict of interest rules.

Under the Conflict of Interest Act, reporting public office holders – a group of politicians that includes cabinet ministers – must sell or put into trust any publicly-traded securities, commodities and stock options within 120 days of their appointment.

First elected in 2015, Erskine-Smith spent much of his political career as a backbencher until he was named housing minister in December, prompting him to reverse his decision earlier in 2024 to not seek re-election.

Erskine-Smith, who only spent 20 weeks in his role, was one of several Trudeau-era cabinet ministers left out of Carney’s cabinet – alongside Karina Gould, Jonathan Wilkinson and Bill Blair.

“It’s impossible not to feel disrespected and the way it played out doesn’t sit right,” Erskine-Smith wrote in a statement earlier this week, adding he’s disappointed he and his team “won’t have the chance to build on all we accomplished.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
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