Mulroney exit fuels shuffle buzz

"We're not rising this week"

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MULRONEY AND CHOW AND BAINS, OH MY!

CAROLINE MULRONEY’s surprise departure has kicked the Queen’s Park rumour mill into overdrive — and prompted chatter about whether DOUG FORD is about to lose more than one front-bencher.

Mulroney reportedly told the Premier at his Etobicoke home on Sunday she’ll resign from cabinet and vacate her York–Simcoe seat on June 5, catching more than a few PCs off guard. It’s a blow to Ford, who’s been dealing with his fair share of bad-news headlines, but he insisted “there’s no other…anything” to her departure.

“Caroline and I were sitting at my place saying, how’s the media going to spin this?… She’s just a wonderful down-to-earth person, and I think the world of her…We were fortunate to get her to run again the third term.”

For her part, three-term MPP was teary-eyed in her farewell speech in the House, calling it “one of the hardest decisions” of her life — shaped by the passing of her father, ex-P…