Justin Trudeau was sworn into office on Nov. 4, 2015, following the official resignation of Stephen Harper from the role of Canadian prime minister. Along with his credentials being verified, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed his cabinet, consisting of 30 ministers, as well as himself.
Other than the obvious changes to the cabinet, in that none of Harper’s Cabinet ministers remained in their posts, something else was different that got Canadians talking: equality. Prime Minister Trudeau’s campaign promises of gender parody within his Cabinet was recognized in the appointment of 15 women and 15 men to the roles of ministers.
However, gender equality is not the only noticeable social justice concern that Prime Minister Trudeau addressed within his Cabinet. To start, there are now four Sikhs holding Cabinet positions—a figure that is greater than in India itself. Sikh Canadians represents approximately 500,000 members of the Canadian demographic.
In addition to recognizing non-Christian Canadians, Prime Minister Trudeau appointed Jody Wilson-Raybould, a lawyer and former regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, as Canada’s new Minister of Justice and Attorney General. Wilson-Raybould becomes the first Aboriginal person to hold the post. She follows in the footsteps of Conservative Kim Campbell and Liberal Anne McLellan. Wilson-Raybould will have to tackle the legalization of marijuana, how to approach the subject of physician-assisted death, and the retooling of anti-terror legislation introduced by the former Conservative government. In addition to his appointment of Wilson-Raybould, Prime Minister Trudeau showed his commitment to the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women through his appointment of longtime MP Carolyn Bennett as Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs.
Other exciting appointments include the appointment of Ottawa lawyer and NGO director Catherine McKenna, as Canada’s new Minister of Environment and Climate Change. McKenna takes office, just as world leaders prepare to meet in Paris for international climate change talks.
Former journalist and media manager Chrystia Freeland, is Canada’s new Minister of Trade. She is the first woman to handle the trade portfolio since Pat Carney held the post in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government in the 1980s. Freeland looks forward to finalizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Prime Minister Trudeau also appointed Harjit Sajjan as Minister of Defence. Sajjan fought in Bosnia and served three tours in Afghanistan. Not to mention, Sajjan also spent time as a detective in Vancouver working in the organized crime investigations department. What many are thrilled to see, especially those who are service people themselves, is that Canada actually has a military man in charge of the military, who has faced combat and dealt with wounded soldiers in the field.
Trudeau’s cabinet, justified plainly by the fact that it is 2015, is something to be proud of, and hopefully will perform as well as they have been received.