Carney names Bill Blair next envoy to U.K., taps security adviser Drouin for France

OTTAWA — Former cabinet minister Bill Blair will resign his Toronto seat in the House of Commons in the coming weeks to take on a new role as Canada’s high commissioner to the United Kingdom.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is also appointing his national security adviser Nathalie Drouin as Canada’s ambassador to France and Monaco.

Blair’s appointment to London will vacate a seat in his Toronto riding of Scarborough Southwest — the second Toronto seat vacated since Chrystia Freeland’s resignation earlier this year.

The appointments — to global capitals where Carney is pursuing deeper economic, security and climate policy ties — fill vacancies previously held by two other political appointees, Stéphane Dion in Paris and Ralph Goodale in London.

Blair served as Toronto’s police chief before entering politics. He led the Toronto police response to the 2010 G20 protests, where more than 1,100 people were arrested.

Ontario’s police watchdog at the time, Gerry McNeilly, issued a report in 2012 saying the Toronto Police Service’s security planning was “incomplete and inadequate,” that numerous officers used excessive force when making arrests and that the prisoner processing centre was “poorly planned, designed and operated.”

Blair has consistently defended the police service’s handling of the G20 protest.

Blair was first elected in 2015 in the election that saw the Trudeau Liberals form a majority government after being reduced to third party status in 2011.

Later that year, Blair was named parliamentary secretary to then attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould.

Blair was elevated to cabinet in July 2018 as minister of border security and organized crime prevention.

He moved into the public safety and emergency preparedness portfolio in November 2019.

This made him a key minister during the winter 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protests that saw hundreds of vehicles — including semi trucks — and thousands of people occupy downtown Ottawa for three weeks, and resulted in the government invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time.

Both Blair, as the minister, and Drouin, in her capacity as deputy Privy Council clerk, testified at the Public Order Emergency Commission looking at the government’s use of that act, an inquiry which found the use of the Emergencies Act justified.

The Federal Court of Appeal, however, recently upheld a Federal Court decision saying the use of the Act was not reasonable.

Drouin also appeared before the inquiry into foreign electoral interference that ended a year ago.

In 2019, Drouin also testified to the House justice committee as it studied the SNC-Lavalin affair, during which she was the civilian head of the federal Justice Department. She previously held roles in the Quebec civil service.

Blair was named defence minister in July 2023. Much of his tenure was dominated by efforts to support Ukraine with donations of military equipment and training as it fought off a full-scale Russian invasion.

He also led the early implementation of military cultural change recommendations after the Canadian Armed Forces was rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct.

Blair was at the helm of the defence ministry as Canada began a concerted effort to bring its defence spending up to the NATO target of two per cent of GDP.

Drouin most recently was centre stage in Canada’s security dialogue with India, which involves a series of high-level discussions to address concerns about transnational repression and organized crime.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2026.

— With files from David Baxter