Trudeau sworn in as Canada's prime minister, three from B.C. named to cabinet
OTTAWA - Three British Columbians will play senior roles in Justin Trudeau’s new Liberal government.
Decorated military veteran Harjit S. Sajjan (Vancouver South) was named defence minister, former Crown prosecutor and Aboriginal leader Jody Wilson-Raybould (Vancouver Granville) becomes justice minister, and lawyer-paralympian Carla Qualtrough (Delta), who is legally blind, was appointed minister of sport and persons with disabilities.
Sajjan and especially Wilson-Raybould will also play senior roles in Trudeau’s cabinet committee system, with both being named members of the Trudeau-chaired, 11-person committee on “agenda and results.”
Other major appointments included William Morneau in finance, Stephane Dion in foreign affairs, John McCallum in immigration, Carolyn Bennett in indigenous and northern affairs, Ralph Goodale in public safety, Chrystia Freeland in international trade, and Catherine McKenna in environment and climate change.
The three British Columbians were sworn in Wednesday morning as they joined a 31-member cabinet that is made up of 15 women and, including Trudeau, 16 men.
In June, Trudeau promised that his cabinet “will have an equal number of men and women.”
Limiting B.C. to three ministers means the province has 9.7 per cent of the members in the new cabinet, even though the province has 13.1 per cent of Canada’s population.
Stephen Harper’s most recent 39-member cabinet included five British Columbians in junior and senior roles, or 12.8 per cent of the total membership.
Trudeau, in selected three B.C. newcomers to the federal cabinet, chose to take the route of picking fresh but relatively inexperienced young faces while limiting his B.C. representation to MPs in or close to Vancouver.
That means he could draw the ire of community leaders in municipalities like fast-growing Surrey.
However, Sajjan’s appointment will likely be viewed with some pride in Surrey’s large South Asian community.
Sajjan, a turbaned Sikh and former police detective, is portrayed by Liberals as a war hero after four overseas military deployments as an intelligence officer – including three in Afghanistan.
Three other South Asians were named to cabinet: Navdeep Singh Baines, the new minister of innovation and the MP from Mississauga-Hamlton; Bardish Chagger, the minister of small business and tourism from Waterloo; and Amarjeet Sohi, the new minister of infrastructure and communities from Edmonton Mill Woods.
“I think Trudeau has shown remarkable courage” with those appointments, Rattan Mall, a B.C. Journalist with the Indo-Canadian Voice, told The Vancouver Sun in an email.
“He will be deeply admired by Sikhs and Indians all around the world.”
Wilson-Raybould’s appointment by Trudeau was particularly poignant, since her father Bill Wilson told Trudeau’s father Pierre at a 1983 constitutional conference that his daughter would like to some day be prime minister. (See Wilson's comment here at around the three minute, 30-second mark.)
Trudeau, despite winning 17 of B.C.’s 42 seats, was limited in choice due to the heavy concentration of Liberal MPs in Metro Vancouver.
Only Steve Fuhr, elected in Kelowna-Lake Country, won a seat in the B.C. interior, and the ruling party was shut out on Vancouver Island.
Trudeau also risked creating some resentment among long-serving Liberal caucus veterans across the country, including the only two B.C. Liberals to survive the 2011 election debacle – Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre) and Joyce Murray (Vancouver Quadra).
Fry served in cabinet under former prime minister Jean Chretien, while Murray served as a minister in Gordon Campbell’s provincial Liberal government.
In a statement Trudeau gave a hint on the policy direction in several areas.
Trudeau promised action on climate change, building a “nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples,” and the fulfillment of the government’s “sacred obligation” to Canadian veterans and their families.
“We are committed to both the security and safety of Canadians and the protection of their rights and freedoms,” he said.
“We will also reinvest in our cultural and creative industries and create an immigration system grounded in both compassion and economic opportunity.”
The three B.C. appointees will play key roles in the cabinet committee system, where many decisions are often made:
* Sajjan and Wilson-Raybould sit on the 11-person cabinet committee on agenda and results, which will set the government’s agenda and track progress priorities, and which is chaired by Trudeau. Previous governments called this the “priorities and planning” committee, and it is considered the most important cabinet committee in government.
* Wilson-Raybould is vice-chair of the committee “on Canada in the world and public security,” which is chaired by Goodale. Sajjan, decorated for his intelligence-gathering successes during the Afghanistan conflict, is also on this committee. Both Wilson-Raybould and Sajjan are also on the sub-committee on Canada-U.S. Relations.
* Wilson-Raybould is vice-chair of the cabinet committee on intelligence and emergency management, which is chaired by Trudeau. Sajjan is also a member of the eight-MP committee.
* Qualtrough was named vice-chair of the committee on “open and transparent government.” Wilson-Raybould also sits on that committee.
* Qualtrough and Wilson-Raybould, the former B.C. Regional chief for the Assembly of First Nations, sit on the “diversity and inclusion” committee, chaired by McCallum.