The men and women who will lead Canada’s new government, as they swear an oath of office on Friday, reflect the diversity that has been the cornerstone of Justin Trudeau’s young leadership.
Read our round-up of what you need to know about Canada’s new government
Canadians choose Justin Trudeau to be their Prime Minister. Photograph: Chris Wattie/Reuters
Justin Trudeau, PM
Trudeau, 39, grew up in Vancouver after his father, the elder Trudeau, was elected as the country’s 11th prime minister in 1968. He will form the first government of its kind to fall to opposition by party change since Canadian federation began in 1867.
Now ranked the world’s fifth-most powerful leader by Forbes, Trudeau’s main adversaries were the rightwing parties in the ruling Liberal party. Trudeau needed to muster a majority to meet the requirements of a majority government, which has a mandate to win a majority of seats in parliament.
He joined the Liberal party as a member of parliament in 2008 and was elected leader of the party the following year. In 2015, he became Canada’s first Jesuit prime minister after the party left opposition. After winning the last election in October 2015, the centrist prime minister recognized the threat of the Conservative party to his plan to legalize same-sex marriage.
Trudeau appointed six women to the new cabinet and his youngest cabinet member, Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, is 31 years old. This is also the first cabinet since 2006 in which neither a man nor a woman has been the prime minister.
I think we are almost proud – without disrespect – that a woman like Chrystia Freeland could be appointed
Trudeau will be sworn in to his new job at 11am local time on Friday.
François Legault, Quebec premier, PM-designate
Quebec premier François Legault. Photograph: Christinne Muschi/Reuters
Legault, 61, made his name as a popular minister for the rightwing rightwing, and is now head of the newly-formed Coalition Avenir Québec party. He was elected in the province in 2014 and has been premier since September 2017.
He is a staunch supporter of the sovereignty of Quebec, and is seen as a friend of Canada’s federal government. Legault’s party, on the other hand, is opposed to the leadership of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. The party has said that federalism is a loser in Canada’s changing political landscape.
A doctor of pharmaceutical technology, Legault has a strong reputation among Canadians as a politically and personally gifted leader, and his party won 21% of the popular vote in the last election, which led Legault to have second thoughts about his party’s newly-formed ambitions to become a federal player.
He will be sworn in at noon Friday in Quebec City.
Tracy MacCharles, leader of the leftwing Alliance Québec
Tracy MacCharles, leader of the Quebec-based leftwing Alliance Québec party. Photograph: Vincent Ricardel/Getty Images
MacCharles, 43, founded her party in 2009 to counter what she sees as the “neoliberal domination” of the federal government and its progressive mainstream party, the New Democratic party.
After a few embarrassing losses for the party, she rose in the popularity polls and won 44 seats in the 2015 election.
MacCharles will be sworn in at 4pm local time, one hour earlier than the other provincial leaders.
Barbara Nuchow, leader of the New Democratic party
Niki Ashton, leader of the leftwing Alliance Québec party. Photograph: Soczlaff/Demotix/Corbis
Ashton, 35, was elected to the Alberta parliament in 2008 and became one of the most visible NDP members in Canadian politics after the 2015 election.
She was a senior spokeswoman for the fourth largest mass migration in Canada’s history during the 2015 election campaign, which saw a record number of asylum seekers from the United States cross the Canada-U.S. border at the Quebec town of Lacolle.
At the national level, Ashton has been a fierce critic of Trudeau, criticizing the government’s decision to allow Kinder Morgan to triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to 890,000 barrels per day.
Ashton will be sworn in at 4pm local time in Quebec City.
