Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet has four Indo-Canadians in cabinet with three returning ministers – Bardish Chagger, senior minister Navdeep Bains and Harjit Sajjan returning to Defence. Rrookie MP Anita Anand seems to have been promoted to Minister to satisfy the Hindu rightwing and pro-India organizations as critics have charged after her appointment on Wednesday.  Anand, who is a University of Toronto Faculty of Law Professor, is a member of the Canada-India Foundation (CIF), which is a pro-India lobbying organization. She will be watched carefully by groups who are wary of India’s propaganda and lobbying efforts in Canada.

 

OTTAWA– Prime Minister Justin Trudeau again snubbed hard-working Surrey MP Sukh Dhaliwal, who was instrumental in party fundraising and who easily won the seat again for the Liberals in Surrey-Newton.

Trudeau’s new cabinet has four Indo-Canadians in cabinet with three returning ministers – Bardish Chagger, senior minister Navdeep Bains and Harjit Sajjan returning to Defence.

Rrookie MP Anita Anand seems to have been promoted to Minister to satisfy the Hindu rightwing and pro-India organizations as critics have charged after her appointment on Wednesday.  

Anand, who is a University of Toronto Faculty of Law Professor and conducted research for the task force to modernize securities legislation in Canada and the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182, is also a member of the Canada-India Foundation (CIF), which is a pro-India lobbying organization. She will be watched carefully by groups who are wary of India’s propaganda and lobbying efforts in Canada.

The incoming cabinet consists of 36 ministers, not including the prime minister himself, and also has gender parity, following the standard Trudeau set in 2015.

In a statement, Trudeau calls his new cabinet a “strong, diverse and experienced team” that will be “working tirelessly for all Canadians.”

A few key ministers are not moving from their posts: Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay.

Others are taking on big portfolios: Ahmed Hussen becomes social-development minister, Marco Mendicino the immigration minister, Seamus O’Regan the minister of natural resources, Patty Hajdu the minister of health, and newcomer Marc Miller the minister of Indigenous services.

Two ministers who remain MPs have been removed from cabinet: Ginette Petitpas Taylor, who was health minister, is now deputy government whip; and Kirsty Duncan, the science and sport minister, becomes deputy leader of the government in the House of Commons.

The Liberals were shut out of every riding in Saskatchewan and Alberta in the Oct. 21 vote.

New House leader Pablo Rodriguez will also be Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant.

JUSTIN TRUDEAU’S MINORITY CABINET:

Chrystia Freeland becomes deputy prime minister and minister of intergovernmental affairs

Anita Anand becomes minister of public services and procurement

Navdeep Bains becomes minister of innovation, science and industry

Carolyn Bennett remains minister of Crown-Indigenous relations

Marie-Claude Bibeau remains minister of agriculture and agri-food

Bill Blair becomes minister of public safety and emergency preparedness

Bardish Chagger becomes minister of diversity and inclusion and youth

Francois-Philippe Champagne becomes minister of foreign affairs

Jean-Yves Duclos becomes president of the Treasury Board

Mona Fortier becomes minister of middle-class prosperity and associate minister of finance

Marc Garneau remains minister of transport

Karina Gould becomes minister of international development

Steven Guilbeault becomes minister of Canadian heritage

Patty Hajdu becomes minister of health

Ahmed Hussen becomes minister of families, children and social development

Melanie Joly becomes minister of economic development and official languages

Bernadette Jordan becomes minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

David Lametti remains minister of justice and attorney general

Dominic LeBlanc becomes president of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada

Diane Lebouthillier remains minister of national revenue

Lawrence MacAulay remains minister of veterans affairs and associate minister of national defence

Catherine McKenna becomes minister of infrastructure and communities

Marco Mendicino becomes minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship

Marc Miller becomes minister of Indigenous services

Maryam Monsef becomes minister for women and gender equality and rural economic development

Bill Morneau remains minister of finance

Joyce Murray becomes minister of digital government

Mary Ng becomes minister of small business, export promotion and international trade

Seamus O’Regan becomes minister of natural resources

Carla Qualtrough becomes minister of employment, workforce development and disability inclusion

Pablo Rodriguez becomes leader of the government in the House of Commons

Harjit Sajjan remains minister of national defence

Deb Schulte becomes minister of seniors

Filomena Tassi becomes minister of labour

Dan Vandal becomes minister of northern affairs

Jonathan Wilkinson becomes minister of environment and climate change