Can you break down Trudeau’s new cabinet for me?

PM Justin Trudeau's new cabinet, announced this week, represents some major shifts for Canada's biggest portfolios. Get informed.

Welcome to the 52nd issue of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Sam, one-third of The Supplement team! 

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This week, we’re tackling this question: Can you break down Trudeau’s new cabinet for me?

TL;DR: Trudeau has revealed his new cabinet, making some major shifts in leadership. Anita Anand will become defense minister amid an ongoing sexual misconduct crisis in the Canadian military; longtime activist Steven Guilbeault will become environment and climate change minister just days ahead of COP26; Mélanie Joly will now contend with U.S. and China relations as the new foreign affairs minister — and more. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has revealed his new cabinet. This kind of thing is often the nitty-gritty Canadian politics that puts a lot of people to sleep — but I want you to know more about the leaders that will influence your life in the years to come, so let’s get you caught up (quickly). 

Trudeau made a lot of big cabinet changes. By CBC’s count, there are “nine new faces added to cabinet, three names dropped, some prominent shuffles and the creation of new portfolios.” In total, there are now 39 ministers. The cabinet maintains the gender parity Trudeau achieved in 2019. 

Some of the notable changes:

• Anita Anand will take on the role of defence minister, becoming only the second woman in Canadian history to do so. (Issue of note here: the sexual misconduct crisis in the military.) Anand previously served as the procurement minister, wrangling COVID-19 vaccine supplies.

• Harjit Sajjan, who faced a tumultuous time as the former defense minister, has been moved to the role of minister of international development and minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada. (Issue of note here: promoting human rights and gender equity globally.)

• Marci Ien is the first Black woman to have a role in Cabinet since Jean Augustine in 2004, now serving as the minister of women, gender equality and youth. (Issue of note here: addressing the rising domestic violence caused by the pandemic.)

• Steven Guilbeault is moving from the role of heritage minister to environment and climate change minister. Guilbeault is a longtime environmental activist, including with Greenpeace. (Issues of note here: COP26, the United Nations climate conference, is just a few days away. In the long term, the Liberals want to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40-45 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.)

• Mélanie Joly is moving from the role of minister of economic development and official languages, and will become the foreign affairs minister. This is a high-profile role and represents a major promotion. (Issue of note here: managing the country’s rollercoaster relationships with the United States and China.) 

• The health ministry is being taken over by Jean-Yves Duclos. (Issue of note: the ongoing pandemic, obviously.) 

• Patty Hajdu, the former health minister, is the new minister of Indigenous services. Marc Miller, who will now serve as the head of Crown-Indigenous relations, will work closely alongside her here. (Issue of note here: the renewed calls for increased efforts towards meaningful reconciliation, as the count of bodies found at former residential school sites sits at 7,300 and rising.) 

Also worth noting some brand new titles: 

• As Canadians are being priced out of cities from coast to coast, a new ministry for affordable housing is being solidified, which Ahmed Hussen will lead. 

• The health portfolio is being divided into two parts, with Carolyn Bennett coming in as the new minister of health and addictions (the opioid epidemic being another ongoing crisis that merits specialized attention). 

Here’s a full cabinet who’s-who complete with photos, thanks to CBC. 

During his Tuesday speech, Trudeau also used the time to make some promises to Canadians. Among them: creating more affordable housing nationwide, aiding the continued economic recovery from the pandemic, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

He also said he would work on advancing reconciliation with Indigenous people. But this promise rang disingenuous for some after Trudeau spent the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 vacationing with his family on Vancouver Island instead of accepting an invitation to speak with Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Nation, which is close to where 215 unmarked residential school graves were discovered in May. 

Also, the federal government, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and the Assembly of First Nations agreed Friday to pause litigation on the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s decision to mandate compensation for discrimination in the indigenous child welfare system. They hope to reach a settlement — and if not, expedited court proceedings will continue in December. 

Parliament will return on November 22.

Here’s someone to follow: 

Tajja Isen, formerly an editor with The Walrus, was named editor-in-chief of Catapult this week, solidifying the literary fiction and non-fiction magazine as a must-follow. (Full disclosure: she edited a Walrus piece of mine, which made me love her all the more.) She also has a book called “Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service” that is coming out in April 2022! 

Here’s a story to check out: 

This recent story from Rebecca Jennings, a senior correspondent at Vox covering internet culture, is absolutely worth the read. It’s a thoughtful look at how the popular platform OnlyFans is becoming an increasingly more common stream of revenue, blurring the line between sex work and influencer culture as a result, and it captures a lot of the nuances that other stories about OF often miss.

ALSO if you want to read more about the Succession-esque “battle for control and ensuing family feud” happening at Rogers, check out this in-depth story by Globe telecom reporter Alexandra Posadzki.