Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire, arrive with his cabinet before their swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on November 4th, 2015.

This morning, just after 7:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ushered in a new era in Canadian politics, with a cabinet that is reflective of the country’s ethnic diversity, a mix of veteran MPs and former Liberal cabinet ministers and newly-elected, rookie politicians, a cabinet keeps that Mr. Trudeau’s promise (as he self-
identifies as a feminist) of gender parity, a federal cabinet of 30 ministers, composed of more women than ever before in Canadian history.
Bill Morneau, a millionaire Toronto businessman and a former head of the C.D. Howe Institute who has not previously held a seat in Parliament, was given the key Finance portfolio, while Chrystia Freeland, a Toronto MP and former journalist, as Trade Minister, and Navdeep Bains, who was an MP from 2004 to 2011, who will be Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development, and Scott Brison, as Treasury Board President, who will be tasked with vetting government spending, constitute the four Members of Parliament, and cabinet, who round out Mr. Trudeau’s economic team, working toward setting Canada on a course for prosperity.
Some old hands return to cabinet, including veteran MP Stéphane Dion, the former Liberal leader, as Foreign Affairs Minister. John McCallum, the new Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister, has the difficult task of arranging for resettlement of 25,000 Syrian refugees in Canada by year’s end, a commitment made by Mr. Trudeau during the election campaign.
Two newly-elected British Columbia Members of Parliament, Jody Wilson-Raybould, the former regional chief for British Columbia on the Assembly of First Nations and a former Crown prosecutor, and now federal Justice Minister and Attorney-General, and Harjit Sajjan, a retired and decorated Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces, who becomes Canada’s new Defence Minister, signal Prime Minister Trudeau’s intention to take the country in a new direction, both with Canada’s indigenous peoples and the diverse communities that comprise the Canadian multi-cultural mosaic.
For now, meet your new team of federal cabinet ministers, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also becomes Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth in the new government.
Please find below, the full list of names of Mr. Trudeau’s first cabinet …

• Bill Morneau (Toronto Centre), Finance Minister. Until his federal win, Mr. Morneau was the executive chair of one of Canada’s largest human resources firm, Morneau Shepell, a firm founded by his father. He’s also a former chair of the economic think-tank, the C.D. Howe Institute. During his career, he was appointed by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to an expert panel to recommend an Ontario pension supplement to the Canada Pension Plan; the panel was led by former prime minister Paul Martin. He also served as one of Mr. Trudeau’s senior economic advisers. Mr. Morneau is the co-author of The Real Retirement: Why You Could Be Better Off Than You Think and How to Make That Happen;
• Jody Wilson-Raybould (Vancouver-Granville), Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada. Ms. Wilson-Raybould is a former crown prosecutor, and adviser at the B.C. Treaty Commission and First Nations chief. During her time as regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, Ms. Wilson-Raybould focused on the advancement of First Nations governance, fair access to land and resources, and improved education and health. She is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation. Even though Ms. Wilson-Raybould is a rookie MP, it won’t be her first time on Parliament Hill; she has made numerous appearances before Parliamentary committees to speak about aboriginal issues;
• Stéphane Dion (St-Laurent-Cartierville), Foreign Affairs Minister. Mr. Dion has served as an MP for the Montréal riding of Saint-Laurent (formerly known as Saint-Laurent-Cartierville) for nearly two decades. The former academic stepped down as Liberal leader after a failed bid to carry the party to an election win in 2008.

  Mr. Dion’s previous cabinet experience includes stints as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs under Jean Chrétien, and Environment Minister under Paul Martin. Mr. Dion is responsible for introducing The Clarity Act, which laid out terms under which the federal government would enter into negotiations for secession by one of the provinces;

• Carolyn Bennett (Toronto-St. Paul’s), Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister. Ms. Bennett has held the seat of Toronto-St. Paul’s (formerly just St. Paul’s) since 1997. She is a former family physician and professor at the University of Toronto. Ms. Bennett ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2006, but withdrew to throw her support behind Bob Rae. Most recently, Ms. Bennett served as the party’s critic for aboriginal affairs and northern development.

  Ms. Bennett is also the author of Kill or Cure? How Canadians Can Remake their Health Care System. Ms. Bennett served as Minister of State for Public Health in Paul Martin’s government;

• Ralph Goodale (Regina-Wascana), Minister of Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness. Mr. Goodale was first elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Assiniboia in 1974 at the young age of 24, a seat he held for five years. He then took a break from federal politics to lead the Saskatchewan Liberal Party, before returning to Parliament in 1993.

  He has held the Regina-Wascana seat (previously known as just Wascana) ever since, earning him the nickname “King of Wascana”. During that time, he has served as Finance Minister under Paul Martin and, most recently, as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party;

• Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale), International Trade Minister. Ms. Freeland, touted as Canada’s first female Finance Minister, is a relative newcomer to the Liberal Party, but nonetheless a respected member of Mr. Trudeau’s inner circle. An acclaimed former business journalist and winner of the prestigious National Business Book Award following the 2012 publication of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, a New York Times best-seller, Ms. Freeland won an award for most outstanding Canadian business-related book.

  Plutocrats was winner of the 2013 Lionel Gelber Prize for non-fiction reporting on foreign affairs. Ms. Freeland is author of the 2000 book Sale of the Century, tracking Russia’s journey from communism to capitalism;

• Scott Brison (Kings-Hants), Treasury Board President. Mr. Brison was originally elected as a Progressive Conservative for the riding of Kings-Hants in 1997. He sought the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives in 2003, then crossed the floor to join the Liberals days after the party merged with the right-wing Canadian Alliance-Reform party. Mr. Brison served as Minister of Public Works and Government Services in the Paul Martin government. Mr. Brison served as the Liberal Party finance critic in Parliament, dating back to 2010;
• Mélanie Joly (Ahuntsic-Cartierville), Canadian Heritage Minister. A close Trudeau family friend, Ms. Joly is not new to the political world. She was the runner-up in the 2013 Montréal mayoral race, losing to Denis Coderre but taking a quarter of the vote. A lawyer by trade, Ms. Joly practiced in Montréal before jumping into communications at international firm Cohn & Wolfe. She also helped organize Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal leadership campaign. In 2008, Ms. Joly was named Elle Québec’s Woman of the Year, in the “up and coming” category;
• John McCallum (Markham-Thornhill), Immigration Minister. A veteran MP and cabinet minister, Mr. McCallum has held a range of cabinet positions over the past 15 years, including National Revenue minister and Veterans Affairs minister in the Paul Martin government, and national defence minister for Jean Chrétien. Most recently, he served as the party’s immigration critic.

  Before entering politics, Mr. McCallum was an economics professor at McGill and Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He has also worked as the chief economist for the Royal Bank of Canada. In 2001, he introduced a motion to make Nelson Mandela an honorary Canadian citizen;

• Jane Philpott (Markham-Stouffville), Health Minister. Ms. Philpott has been a family physician at the Markham Stouffville Hospital dating back to 1988. She also served as the hospital’s Chief of the Department of Family Medicine, and is an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine. She worked in Niger from 1989 to 1998, where s
  he practiced general medicine and helped develop a training programme for local health workers. Ms. Philpott is the founder of Give a Day to World AIDS, an organization that has raised $4 million for people affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa;

• Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour), Government House leader. Mr. LeBlanc, son of Roméo LeBlanc, a former Governor General and a cabinet minister in the government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau from 1972 to 1984, was a childhood chum of Justin Trudeau, as their two fathers were old friends who would often take their sons to a fishing camp in Miramichi for summer vacations.

  Dominic LeBlanc was first elected to Parliament in 2000 in the riding of Beauséjour, and has held onto the riding ever since. The former lawyer ran for the leadership of the party in 2008, but dropped out of the race to endorse Michael Ignatieff. Mr. LeBlanc most recently served as the Liberal party’s house leader;

• Judy Foote (Bonavista-Burin-Trinity), Minister of Public Service and Procurement. Ms. Foote has served as the MP for the riding of Random-Burin-St. George’s since 2008, running in Bonavista-Burin-Trinity in October due to redrawn boundaries. She took the riding with 80 per cent of the vote. She has held the positions of deputy house leader and, most recently, party whip. Ms. Foote also served as a provincial MHA for 11 years, holding numerous ministerial roles.

  Ms. Foote had an extensive media and communications career before entering politics. She hosted the CBC radio show “Here & Now”, eventually leaving journalism to work as the director of public relations for former Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Clyde Wells;

• Marc Garneau (Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount), Transport Minister. Known by many for his exploits in space than on Earth, the former astronaut represented the downtown Montréal riding of Westmount-Ville Marie, and now represents the redrawn riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount. Garneau initially made a bid for Liberal leadership in 2012, but eventually withdrew and threw his support behind Mr. Trudeau. Most recently, he served as the Liberal foreign affairs critic. Mr. Garneau started his career in the Royal Canadian Navy and rose to the rank of Commander, before becoming the first Canadian to fly in space in 1984, going on to become the president of the Canadian Space Agency;
• Diane Lebouthillier (Gaspésie-Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine), Revenue Minister. Before entering politics, Ms. Lebouthillier was a social worker at the Rocher Percé Health and Social Services Centre for 23 years. In 2013, she was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation by the Royal Canadian Legion for her work. Until recently, Ms. Lebouthillier served on the Board of Governors of Cégep de la Gaspésie et des Îles, a general and vocational college, and chaired the boards of directors of Réseau collectif Gaspésie Les Îles and Transport adapté et collectif des Anses. She is a mother of three adult sons and grandmother to one grandson;
• James Carr (Winnipeg South Centre), Natural Resources Minister. Prior to entering public life, Mr. Carr worked as a journalist with the Winnipeg Free Press and the CBC. In 1988, he was elected as provincial MLA for Fort Rouge and eventually became deputy leader of Manitoba’s Liberal Party. He then went on to found the Business Council of Manitoba in 1997, before running for the Liberals at the federal level this year. Mr. Carr began his career as a musician, and played oboe with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra;
• Carla Qualtrough (Delta), Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities. A lawyer by training, Ms. Qualtrough has a background in human rights, inclusion and sport. She was vice-chair of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal of B.C. and legal counsel for the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission. She competed in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games, winning three medals in swimming. She remains involved in the world of sport, serving for four years as the president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.
• Navdeep Singh Bains (Mississauga-Malton), Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister. Mr. Bains is a distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. He is a certified management accountant, and was a financial and accounting analyst for years at Ford Motor Company. In his years outside of Ottawa — Bains previously served as the MP for Mississauga-Brampton South from 2004 to 2011, when he was defeated by then-Conservative Eve Adams — he played a key role in Justin Trudeau’s leadership campaign;
• Catherine McKenna (Ottawa Centre), Environment and Climate Change Minister. Considered a star Liberal recruit, McKenna defeated longtime Ottawa-Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar on October 19th. As an international trade lawyer, Ms. McKenna brings a wealth of experience to the table, including her time as a former legal adviser to the negotiator for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor. She is also a board member at the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and has taught at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. Fun fact: Ms. McKenna’s husband, Scott Gilmore, is a longtime Conservative. He wrote a piece in Maclean’s magazine about his decision to vote Liberal in the October 19th election, calling the decision “the unthinkable”;
• Jean-Yves Duclos (Québec City), Families, Children and Social Development Minister. Mr. Duclos is an economist, published author and conference speaker. He is involved with a number of economic associations, including the Canadian Economics Association and C.D. Howe Institute. He is also the co-founder of the Poverty and Economic Policy Research Network;
• Marie-Claude Bibeau (Compton-Stanstead), International Development Minister. Ms. Bibeau had a varied career before making the jump into politics. She started at the now-defunct Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), working in Canada and Africa. For the past 15 years, she’s co-owned a small tourism business called Camping de Compton. She is also the executive director of the Sherbrooke Museum of Nature and Science. Ms. Bibeau is married to Sherbrooke Mayor Bernard Sévigny;
• Lawrence MacAulay (Cardigan), Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister. A long-time Liberal MP, Mr. MacAulay has served as the Solicitor-General of Canada, Minister of Labour and Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. He has also served as the opposition critic for Fisheries and Seniors;

• MaryAnn Mihychuk (Kild
  onan-St. Paul), Employment Minister. Ms. Mihychuk was elected as a member of Manitoba’s NDP government in 1995, serving as Minister of Industry, Trade, and Mines, and Intergovernmental Affairs during her nine years as an MLA. She joined the Liberals in 2014. She is a founder of both Women in Mining Canada, and Women in Mining Manitoba;

• Kent Hehr (Calgary Centre), Veterans Affairs Minister and Associate Minister of Defence. Mr. Hehr comes from a family of educators — the son of a teacher and school principal. He grew up in Calgary, where he played hockey for the Calgary Canucks and Mount Royal University Cougars, and envisioned a future as an athlete. But Mr. Hehr’s life changed forever in 1991 when he was a struck in a drive-by shooting at the age of 21. The injury left him a quadriplegic.

  Despite his injuries, he completed his education, becoming a lawyer. In 2008, he ran for the Alberta Liberals in Calgary-Buffalo and won a seat at the provincial legislature. Mr. Hehr also mounted a mayoral race in Calgary’s 2010 muncipal election but later withdrew to endorse Naheed Nenshi. In 2005, the University of Calgary named Mr. Hehr its graduate of the decade, and one of the 40 top graduates over the last 40 years;

• Maryam Monsef (Peterborough-Kawartha), Democratic Institutions Minister. Ms. Monsef’s family fled the Taliban in Afghanistan, moving to Peterborough. She is a graduate of Trent University and has been a member of more than 30 community-based action committees in Peterborough. In 2014, she ran for mayor of Peterborough, finishing a close second to Mayor Daryl Bennett. Ms. Monsef has an activist background in community engagement, communications and outreach, recently co-founding the Red Pashmina Campaign, which raised more than $150,000 for women and girls in Afghanistan;
• Hunter Tootoo (Nunavut), Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. An Inuit leader, Mr. Tootoo was first elected as a MLA for Iqaluit-Centre in 1999, and held numerous cabinet positions over his 14 years in the legislative assembly, including two years as speaker. Prior to his work in politics, he was a businessman and co-founder of the Iqaluit branch of Arctic Insurance Brokers Ltd. In 1997, Tootoo ran as an NDP candidate for the federal riding of Nunavut, but finished third. He was chosen as a candidate by the Liberal Party earlier this year. Fun fact: Mr. Tootoo is a cousin of New Jersey Devils forward Jordin Tootoo, who was the first Inuk to play in the NHL;
• Patricia Hajdu (Thunder Bay-Superior North), Status of Women Minister. A former Executive Director for Shelter House, Thunder Bay’s largest homeless shelter, Ms. Hajdu is widely known in northern Ontario for leading discussions on substance use, harm reduction, housing and public health, where she chaired the Drug Awareness Committee of Thunder Bay and authored the city’s drug strategy. She and her family have lived almost exclusively in Thunder Bay since 1980. Ms. Hajdu is a frequent op-ed contributor to The Chronicle-Journal newspaper in northwestern Ontario;
• Harjit Sajjan (Vancouver South), Defence Minister. Mr. Sajjan and his family emigrated to Canada from India when he was five years old; he was raised in south Vancouver. A former police detective and highly decorated Lieutenant-Colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces, Mr. Sajjan served three tours in Afghanistan and one in Bosnia. He was the first Canadian Sikh to command a Canadian military regiment. Brigadier-General David Fraser once said about Mr. Sajjan that he was “the best single Canadian intelligence asset in theatre” and “single-handedly changed the face of intelligence gathering and analysis in Afghanistan.” Mr. Sajjan served 11 years with the Vancouver Police Department, most recently specializing in gang violence;
• Kirsty Duncan (Etobicoke North), Science Minister. First elected to Parliament in 2008, Ms. Duncan is a medical geographer, and has taught at the University of Windsor, the University of Toronto and Royal Roads University. She has served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization that won the 2007 Nobel Prize with former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore;
• Amarjeet Sohi (Edmonton Mill Woods), Minister of Infrastructure and Communities. Mr. Sohi, won his seat in the October 19th federal election by a slim 92 votes, defeating former Conservative MP Tim Uppal. Mr. Sohi was first elected as an Edmonton City Councillor in 2007. He has volunteered with Public Interest Alberta, the Centre for International Alternatives and the Canadian Labour Congress. Mr. Sohi is also a former member of the Edmonton Police Commission;
• Bardish Chagger (Waterloo), Minister of Small Business and Tourism. Perhaps the biggest surprise appointment to Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet (no pundit had her on their list of possiblities), the 35-year-old community organizer has spent much of her working life acting in the role of special projects co-ordinator at the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre. Ms. Chagger also worked as the executive assistant to former Kitchener-Waterloo MP Andrew Telegdi, providing her with insight into the mechanism of government. Over the past few years, Ms. Chagger has volunteered with a number of community organizations, including the Interfaith Grand River, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

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