Canada’s New Government: Justin Trudeau is banking on new faces

A new government for Canada, 38 people, as many men as women and new recruits to breathe new life into Ottawa …

For his third term, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to step up a gear in the fight against global warming.

He who is sometimes criticized for his environmental record and who still does not have a majority in parliament, has therefore chosen an environmental activist, “a figurehead”, for Minister of the Environment: Steven Guilbeault.

He arrives in post a few days before COP26, but as a former regional director of Greenpeace and co-founder of Equiterre, the largest environmental organization in Quebec, he will be able to ensure. He says he wants to make Canada “one of the best countries in the world” in the fight against climate change and the protection of biodiversity.

And then the face of Canadian diplomacy changes. Ex-astronaut Marc Garneau is replaced by the Québécoise Melanie Joly who was previously the head of the Department of Economic Development and Official Languages.

The new Minister of Foreign Affairs said she wanted to bet on “humility” and “daring” to ensure “a very strong power of influence of Canada in the big leagues”.

Among other notable appointments, the Liberal PM gave the Defense Ministry to the former Minister of Supply Anita Anand, who was notably in charge of the delivery of vaccines against Covid-19 in Canada. She is the second woman to hold the post, as senior officers face charges of sexual assault.

At the end of September, the Prime Minister had already confirmed the appointment of Chrystia Freeland as Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, a role she held before the last election.

Earlier this month, Justin Trudeau let it be known that his government’s priorities would be the fight against Covid-19, against global warming, to advance reconciliation with indigenous people and to set up a national network of child care centers. children.

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