Justin Trudeau has followed through on his election promise of inclusiveness in naming his cabinet, made up of an equal number of men and women, and including people of various ethnic groups and backgrounds.
Appointing people simply because of their gender, ethnicity or disabilities would be tokenism, but if the cabinet ministers from sa国际传媒 are an indication, that is not the case. Trudeau has chosen people with credible qualifications and experience.
Jody Wilson-Raybould was not named justice minister and attorney general because she is female and a First Nations member. As a lawyer and a former Crown prosecutor, she has the expertise to deal with the legal aspects of her portfolio. As a former sa国际传媒 treaty commissioner and a regional chief of the sa国际传媒 Assembly of First Nations, she will have a deep understanding of the social issues she will confront.
And while she represents the riding of Vancouver-Granville, she grew up on northern Vancouver Island 鈥� we can claim her as one of our own.
As defence minister, Vancouver South MP Harjit Sajjan鈥檚 perspective will be more than theoretical. He has served as a police officer and a member of sa国际传媒鈥檚 military, where he reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He served in Bosnia-Herzegovina and three deployments to Afghanistan, receiving the Meritorious Service Medal.
As the minister of sports and persons with disabilities, Delta MP Carla Qualtrough, too, will draw on deep experience. Besides being a lawyer with a strong background in human rights, she has long been involved in sports. As a member of the 2010 Legacies Now Society, she developed a strategy to ensure diversity and inclusion in the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She has been visually impaired from birth.
Trudeau has shown qualifications don鈥檛 need to be sacrificed to achieve inclusiveness and diversity.
