TORONTO – New faces, confirmations, and surprises. The composition of the new federal government is now done, whose members will be s swear tomorrow morning before Governor General Mary Simon and will immediately get to work after this long break from the vote of last September 20. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for this third Cabinet, has promised that there will be a substantial gender balance and that, as in the past, all the provinces of Canada will have representation in the government team. 

A first problem arises precisely from the outcome of the last elections, where three incumbent ministers – Deb Schulte, Bernadette Jordan and Maryam Monsef – were defeated by their respective opponents. In addition, former Environment Minister Catherine McKenna decided not to run again, abandoning active politics. In the government chessboard, therefore, four spaces have been freed, in this delicate exercise in which the prime minister must weigh and examine every single potential candidacy without upsetting the overall balance of the government team.

From the ballot box, then come other news. In the last legislature, the one that resulted from the 2019 vote, the Liberals had not won any seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan and this had also left traces in the composition of the Cabinet: just as a strong climate of discontent and distrust towards Ottawa was being created in the western provinces – with the victory at the provincial level of the populist right of Jason Kenney and with the birth, indeed, the Maverick Party, a party that had Alberta’s separatism as its sole point in its program – and the lack of a credible government interlocutor had fueled this creeping malaise.

In the elections of last September 20, however, the Liberals managed to win two seats in Alberta, Randy Boissonnault in Edmonton and George Chahal in Calgary: it is almost obvious that one of the two new deputies will enter the government cabinet.

Great attention will also be given to the ethnic origin of the ministers. In pole position for a dicastery without portfolio, for example, we find Rechie Valdez, a new deputy from Mississauga-Streetsville and the first woman of Filipino origin to enter the House of Commons. Helena Jaczek, former provincial minister of health and long-term care homes in the Ontario government led by Kathleen Wynne, is also asking for space.

And what about the Mps of Italian origin? Given for granted the confirmation of Anthony Rota in the important role of Speaker, David Lametti, Marco Mendicino and Filomena Tassi will certainly still be part of the government, while the prices for a possible first experience in the Cabinet of Patricia Lattanzio and Francesco Sorbara are rising.