International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda is resigning her seat as an MP, making a quiet exit from a problem-plagued term and gently opening the door for the summer cabinet shuffle pundits have been predicting.
But that shuffle won’t be happening, according to reports.
Oda will be replaced in her post by Julian Fantino, currently associate minister of National Defence, charged with handling the F-35 purchase that attracted controversy over a $10-billion price discrepancy.
In a post on her website Tuesday, Oda announced she had given Prime Minister Stephen Harper notice two weeks ago that she would vacate her seat as the MP for Durham, Ontario, on July 31.
Calls to her office for comment were deferred to the statement she posted with no further explanation given.
In the statement, Oda said it was an honour to have served and thanked her staff.
“I have had the opportunity to witness the hardships of the world’s most vulnerable peoples and have witnessed the great compassion of Canadians for those in need,” she wrote.
In a statement from the PMO, Harper thanked Oda for her service, but also offered no explanation for her departure.
“Under Bev’s guidance, Canada has led a significant initiative to save the lives of mothers, children, and newborns in the developing world,” noted the PM.
Oda was elected in 2004 and named the official opposition critic for Canadian Heritage. When the Tories came to power in 2006, she was named Minister for Canadian Heritage and then Minister for International Cooperation in 2007.
But her tenure became a target of derision in recent years after a series of scandals. Oda was the face in front of the government’s decision to cut funding for Kairos, a large Christian aid and social justice group doing work overseas with a 35-year track record overseeing projects under CIDA’s purview.
That decision became more controversial when it emerged that Oda was behind the word “not” handwritten into a 2009 CIDA document signed by Oda and senior CIDA officials who had recommended funding for Kairos.
Oda had testified in a parliamentary committee that she did not know where the “not” came from, but later reversed herself and said she directed an official to add the word, saying it was the only way to reflect her decision that she wanted to cut funding to the group.
In a surprisingly titled blog post Wednesday, “Bev Oda deserves a defence,” Green Party leader and sole Green MP Elizabeth May argued that recent media furor about Oda’s travel expenses—including a $16 glass of orange juice and a stay at a swanky London hotel—pale next to the “not” issue, which she said was likely not even Oda’s fault.
“The very most logical conclusion of the train of events is that Bev Oda approved KAIROS funding and someone higher up, someone in the Prime Minister’s Office being the most likely suspect, ordered the Minister’s approval be reversed—resulting in the crude forgery,” wrote May.
With Oda’s quiet exit, Harper avoids having to demote his minister, a move pundits have predicted and pre-interpreted as a sign Harper was well aware that Oda needed to go.
There has been plenty of speculation recently about how Harper may reposition his MPs, including who is due to rise and who should fall, but on Wednesday a spokesperson with the PMO told the Ottawa Citizen no shuffle was forthcoming.
Harper has historically preferred minor tweaks to his cabinet rather than significant overhauls. Bernard Valcourt, current minister of state for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and La Francophonie, will take on Fantino’s post as associate defence minister.
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