Prime Minister Trudeau and his new cabinet were sworn in today:a fair number of women and indo - Canadians in the mix,also a few surprise appointments.
They include a millionaire businessman, a geoscientist, a Paralympian and a refugee who fled the Taliban. Half of them are women. This is the new cabinet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled on Wednesday
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire, arrive with his cabinet before his swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Nov. 4, 2015.Justin Trudeau is ushering in a new era in Canadian politics with a cabinet that is reflective of the country’s ethnic diversity, peppered with rookie politicians, and composed of more women than ever before.
Bill Morneau, a Toronto businessman and a former head of the C.D. Howe Institute who has not previously held a seat in Parliament, has been given the key Finance portfolio.
Mr. Trudeau was sworn in as Prime Minister along with his cabinet in Ottawa Wednesday morning. Read the full list of cabinet ministers here.
Rounding out the economic team, Chrystia Freeland, a Toronto MP and former journalist, is Trade Minister and Navdeep Bains, who was an MP from 2004 to 2011, will be Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development. Scott Brison, who has cabinet experience, will be tasked with vetting government spending as Treasury Board President.
Mr. Trudeau has appointed Stéphane Dion, the former Liberal leader, as Foreign Affairs Minister. John McCallum, the new Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister, has the difficult job of arranging for resettlement of 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by year end, as promised by Mr. Trudeau during the election campaign.
Harjit Sajjan, a Lieutenant-Colonel from Vancouver, is the new Defence Minister. And Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former regional chief for British Columbia on the Assembly of First Nations and a former Crown prosecutor, is Justice Minister – signalling Mr. Trudeau’s intention to take the country in a new direction with Canada’s indigenous people.
The first challenge for Ms. Freeland will be shepherding the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal through Parliament. The first challenge for Mr. Sajjan will be withdrawing Canada from a combat role in Iraq. And the first challenge for Mr. Bains will be deciding whether to give Bombardier as much as $1-billion in loans to tide it over as it tries to get the much delayed C Series jet out the door.
New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc is the new House Leader and Jane Philpott, a doctor from the Markham-Stouffville riding north of Toronto, has been named Health Minister.
Parliament will be recalled on Thursday, Dec. 3, with a Throne Speech laying out the new government's legislative agenda the following day, Mr. LeBlanc announced in the House foyer Wednesday afternoon.
After the swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Trudeau addressed reporters and other members of the public outside Rideau Hall saying he was proud to “present to Canada a cabinet that looks like Canada.”
The new Prime Minister said he has put together a team that will be able to deliver on the ambitious plan that he offered to voters during the recent election campaign.
The Liberal government will be different to its predecessor, he said, in that it will earn Canadians’ trust by demonstrating that it trusts Canadians.
“Openness and transparency isn’t only about trust, though,” he said, “it’s also very much about better policy-making, better decisions. When media can do their jobs by holding us to account and asking tough questions, when disclosure and access to information is just the way Parliament behaves, when open data and evidence-based policy is at the heart of policy-making in government’s decisions, you get the kind of government that Canadians expect and deserve …”
Mr. Trudeau promised that half of his cabinet would be women, and he has kept that commitment by naming Catherine McKenna, an Ottawa lawyer, to be the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, and Mélanie Joly, a lawyer from Montréal, to be the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Veteran Toronto MP Carolyn Bennett was rewarded for her hard work on the aboriginal file with the job of Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
When asked why he insisted on having a cabinet with equal numbers of men and women, Mr. Trudeau replied: “Because it’s 2015.”
He said he would like to recall Parliament in early December. And he said that all of the people who were elected, even those who did not get a cabinet appointment, will be permitted to be strong voices for their communities and will represent a diversity of opinions.
In a reduced cabinet, several highly qualified MPs will be sitting on the back benches. They include former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, former lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie, and former Toronto city councillor Adam Vaughan, who managed to defeat NDP veteran Olivia Chow in the Toronto riding of Spadina-Fort York.
Other cabinet ministers include:
Veteran Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale is the new Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
Judy Foote from Newfoundland is the Minister of Public Service and Procurement.
Jean-Yves Duclos from Quebec City and the director of the department of economics at the Université Laval is the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development.
Marc Garneau from Montreal, a veteran MP and the first Canadian astronaut to fly in space, is the Transport Minister.
Marie-Claude Bibeau from the Quebec riding of Compton-Stanstead, who once worked for the Canadian International Development Agency, is the International Development Minister.
Jim Carr from Winnipeg, a former member of the Manitoba legislature, is the Natural Resources Minister.
Diane Lebouthillier, the warden for the Regional County Municipality of Rocher Percé in Eastern Quebec, is the Revenue Minister.
Kent Hehr, a lawyer from Calgary and a former member of the Alberta legislature who is quadriplegic, is the Veterans Affairs Minister and Associate Minister of Defence.
MaryAnn Mihychuk, a former provincial cabinet minister in Manitoba, is the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour.
Amarjeet Sohi, a three-term Edmonton city councillor, is the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities.
Maryam Monsef from Peterborough, Ont., who fled to Canada with her family from Afghanistan 20 years ago, is the Minister of Democratic Institutions.
Carla Qualtrough, a lawyer and paralympian from Delta, B.C., is the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities.
Hunter Tootoo, a former member of the Nunavut legislature, is the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
Kirsty Duncan, a doctor from Toronto and a veteran MP, is the Minister of Science.
Patricia Hajdu, the executive director of a shelter in Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario, is the Minister of Status of Women.
Bardish Chagger, who was the executive assistant to Andrew Telegdi, the former MP in Kitchener-Waterloo, is the Minister of Small Business and Tourism.
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/trudeau-sworn-in-at-rideau-hall/article27096353/