Trudeau's First Cabinet

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has kept his promise of a smaller, gender-balanced cabinet.

At 31 ministers (including him), Trudeau's first cabinet features many new faces and some veterans.

Bill Morneau, Toronto Centre, Ontario
Minister of Finance

Morneau is the former executive chair of Morneau Shepell, one of Canada's largest human resources firms.


Stéphane Dion, St-Laurent-Cartierville, Quebec
Minister of Foreign Affairs

An MP since 1996, Dion served as Canada's intergovernmental affairs minister under Jean Chrétien and environment minister under Paul Martin. He served as Liberal leader and leader of the Official Opposition from 2006 to 2008.


Jody Wilson-Raybould, Vancouver Granville, B.C.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

Wilson-Raybould is a former Crown prosecutor and regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.

Chrystia Freeland, University-Rosedale (Toronto), Ontario
Minister of International Trade

An MP since 2013, Freeland was courted by Trudeau's team when she was a senior editor at Thomson Reuters in New York City.A Rhodes scholar, she is a well-known author and journalist. She was part of Trudeau's team of economic advisers.

Dr. Jane Philpott, Markham-Stouffville, Ontario
Minister of Health

Philpott is a family physician, associate professor at the University of Toronto, and former chief of the department of family medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital.

Harjit Sajjan, Vancouver South, B.C.
Minister of National Defence

Sajjan is a retired lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan and was the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army regiment. He also served as a Vancouver police officer for 11 years.

Catherine McKenna, Ottawa Centre, Ontario
Minister of the Environment and Climate Change

McKenna was a former legal adviser for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor and founded Canadian Lawyers Abroad (now known as Level), a charity focused on global justice issues.

MaryAnn Mihychuk, Kildonan-St. Paul, Manitoba
Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Labour

Mihychuk was an NDP MLA in Manitoba from 1995 to 2004, serving as minister of industry, trade, and mines, and later minister of intergovernmental affairs.

Amarjeet Sohi, Edmonton Mill Woods, Alberta
Minister of Infrastructure and Communities

An Edmonton city councillor since 2007, Sohi immigrated to Canada from India 35 years ago. He spent time as a political prisoner in India in the late 1980s.

Mélanie Joly, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Quebec
Minister of Canadian Heritage

Joly, 36, made a name for herself by finishing second to ex-Liberal cabinet minister Denis Coderre in the Montreal mayoral race in 2013. She's a lawyer and communications expert.

Maryam Monsef, Peterborough, Ontario
Minister of Democratic Institutions

Monsef, a community organizer, was born in Afghanistan. She fled the Taliban and came to Canada as a refugee with her widowed mother and sisters in 1996.

Kent Hehr, Calgary Centre, Alberta
Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence

Hehr was an Alberta MLA from 2008 to 2015, was one of just two Liberals elected in Calgary. In 1991, he was the victim of a drive-by shooting that left him confined to a wheelchair.

Patty Hajdu, Thunder Bay-Superior North
Minister of Status of Women

Hajdu was executive director of Shelter House, Thunder Bay's largest homeless shelter.

Carla Qualtrough, Delta, B.C.
Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities

Qualtrough is a lawyer and former Paralympian. Legally blind, she won three Paralympic and four World Championship medals for Canada in swimming and was president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

Jean-Yves Duclos, Québec, Quebec
Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development

Duclos is a renowned economist who taught at at Laval University.

Jim Carr, Winnipeg South Centre, Manitoba
Minister of Natural Resources

Carr, a former Manitoba MLA and deputy leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party, served as president of the Business Council of Manitoba from 1998 to 2014.

Judy Foote, Bonavista–Burin–Trinity, N.L.
Minister of Public Services and Procurement

An MP since 2008 and the party whip, Foote previously held several cabinet portfolios in Brian Tobin's provincial government.

Marc Garneau, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce-Westmount (Montreal), Quebec
Minister of Transport

The former astronaut, navy engineer, president of the Canadian Space Agency and Liberal leadership contender was first elected in 2008. He has served as an industry and foreign affairs critic.

Ralph Goodale, Regina-Wascana, Saskatchewan
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

The finance minister under Paul Martin's government, Goodale was the only Liberal elected in Saskatchewan.
 
Navdeep Bains, Mississauga-Malton, Ontario
Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development

An MP from 2004 to 2011, Bains regained his seat this year. In addition to being a certified management accountant, holding an MBA, and teaching at Ryerson University, Bains was an important Trudeau organizer and also served on the Liberals' national election readiness committee.

Scott Brison, Kings-Hants, Nova Scotia
President of the Treasury Board

An MP since 1997, Brison was the public works minister and receiver general of Canada in Paul Martin's government. He had been the Liberal spokesman on economic issues and the vice-chair of the Commons' committee on finance.

Carolyn Bennett, Toronto-St. Paul's, Ontario
Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs

A family physician who has been an MP since 1997, Bennett was Canada's first minister of state for public health and oversaw the 2003 response to the SARS epidemic. In recent years, Bennett has served as the party's vocal critic on aboriginal affairs.

Hunter Tootoo, Nunavut, Nunavut
Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard

A former MLA and speaker of the Nunavut legislative assembly, Tootoo held several cabinet positions in the territory and has extensive government administration experience.

Lawrence MacAulay, Cardigan, P.E.I.
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food

An MP since 1988, MacAulay has served as solicitor general of Canada, minister of labour, secretary of state for veterans and secretary of state for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. In the last Parliament, MacAulay was the critic for fisheries and oceans.

Dominic LeBlanc, Beausejour, N.B.
Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

The Liberals' House leader in the last Parliament, LeBlanc was sworn in as a privy councillor in 2004 when, under Paul Martin, he served as parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the House and deputy government whip. He is a childhood friend of Trudeau's

John McCallum, Markham-Unionville, Ontario
Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship

First elected in 2000, McCallum, a former chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, served as minister of national defence and minister of veterans affairs under Jean Chrétien. He was named minister of national revenue under Paul Martin and was also tasked with leading an expenditure review of government spending.

Bardish Chagger
Minister of Small Business and Tourism

Chagger, 35, worked for the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre. She also worked on Trudeau's leadership campaign.

Diane LeBouthillier, Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec
Minister of National Revenue

A small business owner who has been an elected warden for the Regional County Municipality of Rocher Percé since 2010, Lebouthillier won a seat in Gaspé that the Liberals haven't held in more than a decade.

Marie-Claude Bibeau, Compton-Stanstead, Quebec
Minister of International Development and La Francophonie

Bibeau worked for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Ottawa, Montréal, Morocco and Benin, Africa, before settling and launching her own business in her riding.

Kirsty Duncan, Etobicoke North, Ontario
Minister of Science

Elected in 2008, Duncan taught meteorology, climatology, climate change, and medical geography at the university level.