Justin Trudeau’s cabinet is the shape of things to come
After a marathon 78-day election and thousands of kilometres clocked on the campaign trail, Justin Trudeau’s final steps to power will be a short walk to the front doors of Rideau Hall

TheStar.com
Nov. 3, 2015
Bruce Campion-Smith and Les Whittington

After a marathon 78-day election and thousands of kilometres clocked on the campaign trail, Justin Trudeau’s final steps to power will be a short walk to the front doors of Rideau Hall.

The prime minister-designate will be joined on his walk Wednesday by a small number of Liberal MPs — less than 30 — tapped to serve as cabinet ministers.

Together they will walk from Sussex Drive to Rideau Hall just before 10 a.m. and the public have been invited onto the grounds of the official residence to watch.

Once inside, Trudeau will be sworn in as Canada’s 23rd prime minister, thanks to his surprise election win on Oct. 19 that saw the Liberals win 184 seats, sweeping the Conservatives from power.

Before all that unfolds, Stephen Harper will tend to his last official act as prime minister — tendering his formal resignation to the Governor General in a private meeting.

Trudeau has promised that the Liberal cabinet will have an equal number of men and women, a historic first at the federal level.

But just who will join him in cabinet was being kept a closely guarded secret Tuesday though some MPs seemed certain to become ministers. They include British Columbia MP Jody Wilson-Raybould; Chrystia Freeland and Bill Morneau from Toronto; Kent Hehr, of Calgary; and Montreal’s Mélanie Joly.

Late Tuesday night, La Presse reported that six Quebec MPs are expected to be in the cabinet, including Marc Garneau, former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, Joly, Jean-Yves Duclos and Diane Lebouthillier.

The Liberals won the surprise, come-from-behind election on the promise of “real change” in Ottawa. Some of that work will begin Wednesday afternoon when Trudeau is expected to meet with his cabinet for the first time.

Trudeau is expected to enjoy a generous honeymoon as far as the public is concerned, but the Liberals face early and daunting challenges as they try to put a fresh stamp on government, fulfill their ambitious campaign promises and deal with a range of issues left over from the previous government.

An immediate task for the immigration minister will be figuring out how to fulfill the Liberals’ plan to accept 25,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq by the end of the year. Details are expected quickly once the government is sworn in, with a combination of military transport planes and charter aircraft employed to bring the refugees to Canada. But whether the goal can be accomplished by Dec. 31 is still a question mark.

The Trudeau government is under pressure from Quebec to quickly match the province’s $1-billion bailout of Bombardier’s troubled new aircraft program. Propping up the company’s C-Series jet program is widely seen as an iffy investment, but the Liberals, who were given an unexpected vote of confidence by Quebec voters, may feel compelled to come to the aid of the Quebec industrial icon.

With the economy still struggling as a result of the oil-price shock, the government will need to move quickly to implement its main economic stimulus promise — the Liberal plan to double investment in roads, public transit and other infrastructure to $10 billion a year. The Liberals will have to get off the fence on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact initialed during the election by the Conservative government. Trudeau says he’s in favour of free trade, but the TPP could be trouble for Canada’s automakers. The government will also want to move quickly to fulfill its pledge to cut middle-class income taxes.

Other issues needing immediate attention include Trudeau’s promises to open a new “nation-to-nation” dialogue with First Nations and set up an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women; drafting new legislation on doctor-assisted suicide; withdrawing military aircraft from Canada’s mission against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and reforming the Conservatives’ far-reaching anti-terrorism legislation.

Marshalling combined federal-provincial action on Canada’s efforts to tackle global warming will be a high priority. To that end, Trudeau has invited Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and other provincial leaders to accompany him to the crucial UN Paris Climate Conference that opens in late November.

On foreign affairs, the Liberals are committed to reorienting Canada’s international role to re-establish the importance of multilateral action through institutions like the UN. And Trudeau said he wants to unwind the tensions between the Harper government and the Obama administration fed by the dispute over pipeline access.

Trudeau will take to the world stage quickly. On Nov. 15-16, he will attend a summit of G20 leaders in Antalya, Turkey. The next global meeting is an APEC leaders’ economic conference in Manila on Nov. 18-19, followed by a Commonwealth meeting in Malta on Nov. 27-29.

With the Senate expense scandal still casting a dark cloud over Ottawa, the Liberals need to move quickly to fulfill their promise of a new, independent system of naming Senators who will all sit as Independents. There are currently 22 Senate vacancies.

To get a start on the Liberals’ promise of a new day of more open and transparent government, the government will have to take action before long on a range of promises including making Commons committees more effective, allowing more free votes by MPs, broadening the Access to Information regime, and beginning work by Parliament on how to replace the first-past-the-post voting system.

To signal renewed respect for scientists and data- based decision-making, the Liberals will quickly reinstate the long-form census.