It was quite a few days for Alberta’s only representative on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.

Last Friday, Canada’s Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault apologized over claims he has made about his Indigenous identity.

“I apologize that I wasn’t as clear as I could have been about who I am and my family’s history,” he said.

Fast forward to Wednesday, and Boissonnault is now out as minister of employment, workforce development and official languages over the controversy.

“The member for Edmonton Centre has stepped down from cabinet to focus on clearing these allegations,” the Prime Minister told the House of Commons.

Boissonnault, an Edmonton MP first elected in 2015, who lost in 2019, but won again in 2021, had in the past referred to himself as “non-status adopted Cree” and also made claims that his great-grandmother was a “full-blooded Cree woman.”

But after coming under further scrutiny when the National Post reported he was co-owner of a company called Global Health Imports, which described itself as an Indigenous company in a 2020 bid for a government contract to supply face masks, the pressure was too much.

It was also revealed this week that the Edmonton police are investigating an allegation of fraud involving his former company and business partner.

“Mr. Boissonnault will focus on clearing the allegations made against him,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Earlier in the month, Boissonnault blamed his former business partner for describing the company as Indigenous without his consent.

And as recently as Tuesday, Trudeau was defending his now-former cabinet minister, saying Boissonnault had answered the questions swirling around his business dealings.

“Minister Boissonnault has addressed these and will continue to answer directly for those. In the meantime, I’m happy that he is continuing to lead on issues around jobs and employment, and represent Alberta and our government,” the Prime Minister said in Rio de Janeiro, where he was attending G20 meetings.

Boissonnault’s departure means Alberta will no longer have a voice at the cabinet table. The only other Liberal MP from the province is Calgary’s George Chahal, who was among a group of MPs who publicly called for a secret ballot vote within caucus on whether Trudeau should step down as party leader.

In Robyn Urback’s biting column filed before Boissonnault stepped aside, she pulled no punches in her assessment of the situation:

“Mr. Boissonnault might be entirely innocent, and he is owed the opportunity to clear his name, but he is not owed a cabinet position in the Canadian government – not with so many questions yet unanswered. The Canadian people, by contrast, are owed a minister of a certain level of gravitas – one who isn’t a central character in an ever-evolving clown show,” she wrote.

It seems the Prime Minister took Robyn’s – and all the other criticism – to heart.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.