They came out into the sunlight from Rideau Hall. They are the 15 women and 16 men who now serve Canada. They sit at the Round Table of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And who will ever forget that when asked why the equal number of men and women in his cabinet, Justin Trudeau replied, “Because it is 2015.”
In two years Canada will be 150 years in the making. In this year, it has moved forward a century. It has moved from an oligarchy towards a democracy. It is returning to its world citizenship, to peace and caring and diplomacy. It will do its part to ease global warming. It will aid the refugees fleeing the mindless slaughter in Syria. It will return to its roll of the honest broker between nations.
This Trudeau cabinet is a challenge. It is a challenge to the status quo. It is a return to responsible, managerial government. These ministers will be hands-on. They will be accountable. They are among the best that Canada has to offer. Justin Trudeau chose them as a cabinet that looks like Canada and a cabinet that can serve Canada.
There is merit to this cabinet and there are cautions. There are those who were skipped over. A general was left out to accommodate a lieutenant colonel in defence. A police chief stays in the ranks of MPs while the controversy over his role in the 2010 G-20 remains unresolved. Other MPs will serve in parliamentary committees in the painstaking job of studying the bills that rule our country.
They will need to answer the Supreme Court’s request to respond to the need for action on doctor-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. They need to fix the Conservative bill that makes criminals of men who need prostitutes and endangers the prostitutes. They need to fix or dismiss the Conservative’s ill-considered attempt to challenge terrorism. And there is much more work to be done.
These men and women of the Trudeau cabinet will have much more work to do than those they replace. They have to lead. Their ministry is their responsibility. They are not under the direction of the Prime Minister’s Office. They do the work, they choose the path and they earn the kudos or the complaints. And none of these ministers want to upset the citizens of this new Camelot or their Prime Minister.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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