The Official Opposition House Leader and Portage-Lisgar MP Candice Bergen says Trudeau's recent Cabinet shuffle has positioned ministers in some offices who are of a concern to Canadians. Bergen explains it reveals trouble.

"Trudeau has had trouble on a number of files," says Bergen. "I think, whether it's pipelines getting built, infrastructure money out, or whether it's illegal border crossers, Trudeau has failed to acknowledge that he's got a problem. And if you can't acknowledge you've got a problem, you can't fix the problem. But now he's gone and done a cabinet shuffle which, by his actions on doing the shuffle, he's admitted that the people he's placed in those particular portfolios have not done a good job."

She notes one topic of concern involves the trade file. "The way I'm looking at it, he's kind of just shuffling around the same people who have failed on previous files. He's got James Carr who saw, under his watch, $80-million of energy investments leave this country. He's now in charge of the trade file. That really concerns me. I don't think that Minister Carr has shown himself to be able to complete the task at hand, and do it in the best interests of Canadians."

Bergen notes the Minister of Infrastructure, Armarjeet Sohi, seems to be unable to get dollars out for the topic of his portfolio's needs. She notes while billions of dollars sit in government coffers, projects in need of that money aren't being addressed. This minister is now in charge of seeing pipelines built.

Thirdly, Bergen adds, she's deeply concerned about the border crossings where tens of thousands are coming in illegally while Trudeau has been saying there's not been a problem for the last two years. A minister has now been positioned over that issue, while there's not supposed to be an issue. She says Bill Blair was selected for the role, and claims Canada Border Services Agency is not accountable to him, and neither is Minister Ralph Goodale who's written up a report on priorities and plans for the Canadian border. Bergen asks how this minister can be in charge of border security when he apparently has no power nor mandate.

"Overall, I think what we're seeing right now is a bit of a desperate Liberal government under a Prime Minister who maybe had the best intentions in mind, but he seems to continue to be in over his head," adds Bergen. "He's not handling some of these very serious situations that are going to have an economic impact on our country. And he's now asking people to take over a problem that he's created. These people don't have the ability to fix it."

Bergen says she's pleased with some changes made in the shuffle.

"I was happy to see that my counterpart Bardish Chagger is now going to be dedicating all of her time to House Leader position," Bergen continues. "You will recall she had a couple of ministries that were split. She was also the Minister of Tourism. And, being a House Leader for the government is a full-time job. I'm very disappointed that we were not able to get CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Agreement, the TPP (Trans-Pacific Agreement) Agreement, let the legislation pass before we rose. And I think that is because people like Bardish did not see those types of things as a priority. But I think it's good that she's going to be focused entirely on legislation. And let's hope that means some legislation gets passed that's good for the economy for this country, and not just motivated legislation which is what we've seen previously. So, yeah, I'm happy that she's going to be full-time house leader, and I'm looking forward to working with her."

She adds the Conservatives now have to be ready in case an early election is called, and feels they are. Bergen notes they've been offering the Liberals some great solutions, including going back to Ottawa in the summer and settling the TPP Legislation by passing and ratifying. That's not been accepted.

"We think that Canadians deserve to have a government that is putting them first, and putting the interests of people before government," adds Bergen. "And that's what Conservatives will keep doing, whether in opposition or as we gear up for the election."