By Steve Scherer and David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled much of his cabinet on Wednesday, adding focus on economic issues like housing and the rising cost of living after almost eight years in power and amid sagging poll numbers.
Trudeau, whose left-leaning Liberals have been in power since November 2015, kept heavy hitters such as Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly in their cabinet portfolios.
Trudeau changed or tweaked the job descriptions of about three-quarters of the positions compared with his previous cabinet, with former immigration minister Sean Fraser taking over a newly formed Housing, Infrastructure and Communities ministry.
Dominic LeBlanc becomes public safety minister, taking over for Marco Mendicino, and Arif Virani moves from the back benches to become justice minister, taking over for David Lametti.
“The idea is to put new energy in key roles, and to put experienced people into new roles. When the time comes, they will be ready to hit the campaign trail,” a senior government source said on condition of anonymity before the reshuffle.
The aim is to improve messaging and focus on economic issues as inflation remains above the central bank’s 2% target and as Canadians, particularly in big cities, grapple with a housing shortage, government sources have said.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Steve Scherer; editing by Paul Simao, Mark Heinrich and Deepa Babington)
