Our new government

GOVERNMENT OF CANADA CABINET MEMBERS 2015 11 4

This is the 29th Cabinet Ministry under the 23rd Prime Minister, drawn from a majority representation of 184 of 338 Members of Parliament in the election of October 19, 2015. I spent a good deal of time today watching the swearing in ceremony and making notes. I have never been so concerned about an election and its results as this one. There is a lot at stake here for the future of Canada. As I reflected on all the changes in the last 2 weeks I realized that, in the words of Joni Mitchell, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” We had grown complacent about what Canada was and where it was going. Governments changed in the last 75 years or so but not much really changed about Canadian fundamentals. Even the Progressive Conservatives were still invested in the Canada we all thought we know and valued. Then car the Conservatives minus the progressive and we saw how a majority government with an extreme agenda could so quickly dismantle what had been billing for over 100 years. The Conservatives tried to make a lot of the support they had but it obviously wasn’t what the majority of Canadians who voted wanted. Now, hope for our nation has returned.

So, here is ‘the list’ of the new Government of Canada cabinet. The order came from the site from which it was copied but the numbers following in parentheses are the sequence with which the ministers were sworn in. My hunch is that was a totally randomly selected sequence as I could determine no rhyme or reason for it, but maybe I did not give that enough thought. The notes following come from comments made during the event or from Wikipedia or other  on-line sources. 

After the list I have made note of some categories and also copied a map of representation from the web. 

1. (1) Justin Trudeau (Quebec) - Prime Minister, Intergovernmental Affairs and Youth. 

Previously MP and leader of the Liberal party, now PM at age 43, son of former Liberal 

      PM PE Trudeau who became PM in 1968 at age 49.

1. (2) Ralph Goodale (Saskatchewan) - Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness. First elected in 1974; in previous cabinet(s) and now in 4 committees. Committed to Restorative Justice.
2. (4) Lawrence MacAulay (P.E.I.) - Agriculture and Agri-Food. First elected in 1988.
3. (6) Stéphane Dion (Quebec) - Foreign Affairs. Previous Liberal leader and cabinet minister; first elected in 1996.
4. (8) John McCallum (Ontario) - Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees. Privy Council member. 
5. (3) Carolyn Bennett, MD (Ontario) - Indigenous and Northern Affairs; first elected in 1997. Has done a lot of medical work among First Nations in No. Ont. Former Minster of State for Public Health. She was chair of the Canada-Israel Friendship Group from 1999 to 2003 and is a member of Liberal Parliamentarians for Israel.
6. (9) Scott Brison (Nova Scotia) - Treasury Board President. Former Conservative but then Liberal Cabinet Minister after crossing the floor in 2003; married gay with children with his partner. First elected 1997.
7. (11) Dominic Leblanc (New Brunswick) - Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. First elected in 2000, born in Ottawa, Ontario, son of Roméo LeBlanc, former Governor General. As a child, he baby-sat Justin, Alexandre, and Michel Trudeau, the children of then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. He has remained friends with Justin Trudeau, and endorsed his candidacy for Liberal leader in 2012.^[4] He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Toronto (Trinity College), a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of New Brunswick, and then attended Harvard Law School, where he obtained his Master of Laws degree. Now in 6 committees, chairing one.
8. (13) Navdeep Bains (Ontario) - Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Law professor, MBA, CMA; first elected 2004. Carried his child out of Rideau Hall.
9. (15) Bill Morneau (Ontario) - Finance Minister. Millionaire head of HR firm who is a retirement and pension expert.
10. (5) Jody Wilson-Raybould (Granville - B.C.) - Justice and Attorney General of Canada. Vancouver lawyer, former Crown Prosecutor and Regional AFN chief.
11. (7) Judy Foote (Newfoundland and Labrador) - Public Services and Procurement. First elected in 2008.
12. (19) Chrystia Freeland (Ontario) - International Trade. Mother of 3; carried one out of Rideau Hall. Committee Chair, first elected in 2013, former Financial Times editor with Harvard and Oxford credentials. Ukrainian origin supporting Ukraine so strongly, as did mother, receiving Putin’s censure for the same.
13. (10) Jane Philpott, MD (Ontario) - Health. Worked extensively in West Africa where she lost a daughter.  She attends the Community Mennonite Church in Stouffville, Ontario where she is a respected hard-working member and song leader for the congregation.
14. (17) Jean-Yves Duclos (Quebec) - Families, Children and Social Development.
15. (20) Marc Garneau (Quebec, Westmoount-Ville Marie) - Transport - out-of-this world [former astronaut], first elected in 2008.
16. (12) Marie-Claude Bibeau (Quebec) - International Development and La francophonie. Involved with CIDA. 
17. (21) Jim Carr (Manitoba; Wpg. South Ctr.) - Natural Resources. MB Liberal. 
18. (14) Mélanie Joly (Quebec) - Heritage. Lawyer who ran for mayor of Montreal.
19. (16) Diane Lebouthillier (Quebec, Gaspe) - National Revenue. Mother and grandmother. 
20. (24) Kent Hehr (Alberta, Calgary) - Veterans Affairs, and Associate Minister of National Defence. Lawyer, paraplegic and former CPA head; first Liberal in Calgary since 1968.
21. (18) Catherine McKenna (Ontario) - Environment and Climate Change. Toronto lawyer.
22. (26) Harjit Sajjan (B.C.) - National Defence. Lt.Col.who served 3 times in Afghanisan and once in the former Yugoslavia; former VPD member and aide-de-camp to former Liberal cabinet minister from BC, Iona Campognolo.
23. (22) MaryAnn Mihychuk (Manitoba, Kildonan-St. Paul) - Employment Workforce Development and Labour. Ukrainian origin, former MB NDP cabinet minister.
24. (28) Amarjeet Sohi (Alberta, Edmonton) - Infrastructure and Communities. Former city councillor.
25. (23) Maryam Monsef (Ontario, Peterborough) - Democratic Institutions. Afghani immigrant 20 yrs. ago. Ist Liberal in riding since 1975.
26. (25) Carla Qualtrough (B.C., Delta) - Sport, and Persons with Disabilities. Visually-impaired lawyer, Paralympics competitor who defeated Kerri-Lynn Findlay of the Conservatives.
27. (30) Hunter Tootoo (Nunavut) - Fisheries and Oceans, and Canadian Coastguard. Former long-time mayor of Iqaluit, Speaker of the Nunavut Territorial Assembly.
28. (27) Kirsty Duncan (Ontario, Toronto) - Science. PhD with education and experience in medical geography, an influenza epidemic expert, UT professor who served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization that won the 2007 Nobel Prize with Al Gore.
29. (29) Patricia Hajdu (Ontario, Thunder Bay) - Status of Women. Expert on issues of drug and alcohol abuse who has worked a lot in N. On. and run a womens’ shelter. Won buy a narrow recount. She obtained a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Victoria.
30. (31) Bardish Chagger (Ontario, Kitchener-Waterloo) - Small Business and Tourism. Multicultural activist.

Category breakdown

Females (15) - fulfilling a campaign promise of 50% female representation “because it’s 2015,“ as Trudeau said after the swearing in of the new cabinet ministers. This out of 88 female MPs altogether, the most ever elected. Harper had 10 females in his last cabinet of 38. There will be 7 males and 4 females on the central council

Indigenous (2): Jody Wilson-Raybould, Hunter Tootoo   

Disabled (2): Kent Hehr,Carla Qualtrough

Former ministers (5):

Stefane Dion, Ralph Goodale, John McCallum, Carolyn Bennett [Jr.], Scott Brison

Regional Representation:

Maritimes (4): Lawrence McAulay [PEI], Scott Brison [NS], Dominic LeBlanc [NB], Judy Foote [NFL]

Quebec (7, 4  from greater Montreal): Justin Trudeau [MTRL], Stephane Dion [MTRL], Marie-Claude Bibeau, Melanie Joly [MTRL],, Diane Lebouthillier, Marc Garneau [MTRL], Jean-Yves Duclos [Q City]

BUT no so-called Quebec Lieutenant in this government as opposed to in many previous administrations.  

Ontario (11, 7 from greater Toronto): Bill Morneau [TO], Carolyn Bennett [TO], Catherine McKenna [TO], Chrystia Freeland [TO], John McCallum [TO], Jane Philpott, Navdeep Bains [TO], Maryam Monsef, Kirsty Duncan [TO], Patricia Hajdu, Bardish Chugger

The West (): Jody Wilson Raybould, Ralph Goodale [SK], James Carr [MB], Maryann Mihychuk [MB], Kent Hehr [AB], Carla Qualtrough [BC], Harjit Sajjan [BC], Amarjeet Sohi [AB]

Punjabi (4 out of 20 elected): Harjit Sajjan [BC], Amarjeet Sohi [AB], Bardish Chugger [ON], Navdeep Bains [ON]

But no Chinese - too bad; too many new immigrants voted Conservative and many Canadian-Chinese vote NDP.