Roundup: A really new cabinet

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So, that’s the new cabinet. For all of the concern trolling over “merit” when it comes to women being appointed in such numbers, Trudeau and the Liberals found an impressively credentialed group of Canadians that will do the country well. There is no one on that list that one could reasonably say got there for the sake of tokenism, which is not something you could argue with the previous government, where there was a lot of dead weight that was simply there to tick some boxes (and quite obviously so). The full list is here, and the Maclean’s annotated group photo is here. While they all did some quick media scrums after their first cabinet meeting, there weren’t a lot of answers yet because they haven’t had a chance to get their departmental briefings. Within a week or two, hopefully we’ll start getting some scrums with some answers (another huge change from the previous government). There may be some entrails to be sorted through in terms of those who didn’t make cabinet, but given that cabinet making is a delicate art, and there are many factors to consider, I would hope that nobody reads too much into the so-called “snubs,” particularly given that the commitment to parliament mattering more should prove that there are plenty of great roles for each of those “stars” that didn’t get a seat at the cabinet table. Maclean’s even went so far as to build a whole second cabinet out of those who didn’t make it this time. As for reaction, Susan Delacourt looks at what messages the picks send, while Andrew Coyne notes that despite the pledge for gender parity, that was not demonstrated in the make-up of cabinet committees.

Good reads:

  • Mulcair insists that the NDP were the only “real” opposition Harper had to face. Between lame scripts and tactics without strategy, they were a real challenge.
  • Here’s a list of issues facing each of the new ministers.
  • The new cabinet is waiting for briefings before they outline how they plan to live up to their commitment on Syrian refugees.
  • New foreign minister Stéphane Dion says he wants Canada to return to its “honest broker” role in the Middle East, and plans to be a tag team with Chrystia Freeland.
  • Between the title of Minster of the Environment and Climate Change, and the cabinet committee including those two plus energy, it signals that this is a big issue.
  • Here are profiles of new ministers Jane Philpott, Harjit Singh Sajjan, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Mélanie Joly, Bill Morneau, and Catherine McKenna.
  • CBC got behind-the-scenes access of Trudeau’s big day, which is pretty interesting to watch.

Odds and ends:

Those 24/Seven PMO videos are no more. Much sadness (not really).

The US government said no to pausing the Keystone XL pipeline process.

This CBC video with MPs giving each other advice is amazing: