Canadian Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard Joanne Thompson has won her re-election and will likely continue in the role as Canada’s Liberal Party won control of the government on 28 April.
Thompson was chosen for the role in March 2025, replacing former minister Diane Lebouthillier who served in the role since July 2023 when she replaced Joyce Murray. The shift in leadership came as former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down from the role, with Liberal leadership passing to Mark Carney. Carney then called for an election, which ran on 28 April.
The liberal win comes just months after the CBC reported the party was polling poorly, with projections in January pointing to a likely Conservative Party win in the next national election. The Conservative Party’s policy declaration included mention of investing in the scientific knowledge base of its fisheries and aquaculture management. The party had also pledged to work with provinces and territories to streamline management of aquatic resources.
The Liberal Party policy declaration from 2023, meanwhile, only mentions fisheries in the context of providing direct payments from the government to fisheries that provide ecological goods and services, “such as ecosystem services or carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, as well as to incentivize them to adopt less resource intensive practices.” The only other mention of fisheries is in the context of protecting water quality to minimize effects on fisheries.
On the Liberal Party’s website, it states a priority for its leadership is to “clean-up, maintain, and protect wildlife in and around our coastal waters” which includes investing in modernizing the location and retrieval of fishing ghost gear. It also said it will conserve nature and biodiversity thorough creating “at least” 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas...
