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Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has named a young and ethnically diverse cabinet, with a ministerial team that for the first time in the country’s history is equally balanced between men and women.
The ministers -- 15 women and 15 men -- are mostly aged under 50, in a team marking both a generational change and a commitment to reflecting Canada’s diversity.
Here’s some interesting facts about the cabinet:
1) Harjit Sajjan, the new minister of national defence, is a former police officer and a lieutenant-colonel in the Canadian Forces. He has deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina and served three separate deployments to Kandahar, Afghanistan. He received numerous recognition for his service, including the Meritorious Service Medal for reducing the Taliban’s influence in Kandahar Province.
2) Justin Trudeau has followed in his father’s footsteps. The son of late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin is today Canada’s second youngest prime minister. The good looking PM is also quite the hot-stepper on the dance floor. A YouTube video shows the 43-year-old grooving to the Punjabi song at an India-Canada Association of Montreal event.
3) Navdeep Bains, another Sikh, was given the portfolio of innovation, science and economic development. Bains has been the Mississauga-Malton MP from 2004 to 2011. He’s been a long-time Trudeau friend and advisor.
4) Canada’s newest minister of Infrastructure and Communities was arrested for terrorism. Amarjeet Sohi was arrested and imprisoned for two years in India as a political prisoner and activist advocating for land reform. He was held almost two years without charges, often in solitary confinement and frequently tortured. Upon moving to Canada, he worked as a bus driver before being elected to Edmonton’s city council.
5) The minister of Public Services and Procurement is a cancer survivor twice over. Judy Foote battled breast cancer 14 years ago, and underwent a double mastectomy this year when the disease returned.
6) Justin Trudeau promised gender parity in his cabinet, and he delivered. Asked why why he had chosen to appoint 15 men and 15 women to the cabinet, his answer was brief: “Because it’s 2015”, he said to cheers and applause.