Trudeau swears in new cabinet
As I post, Justin Trudeau is swearing in his new cabinet. Steven Guilbeault has finally been made environment minister: the longtime Equiterre and Greenpeace figure, who was expected to go right into that role after his election in Laurier-Ste-Marie in 2019, was unaccountably made Minister of Canadian Heritage in that cabinet. Guilbeault will be attending COP26 in Glasgow with Trudeau in a few days.
Marc Garneau, who was moved to Foreign Affairs early this year after being transportation minister since 2015, is out of cabinet. I read somewhere Monday that he’ll become an ambassador, but that’s not in the news Tuesday, and I doubt he will quit as MP for NDG‑Westmount so soon.
Update: Here’s the list. Of the other Montreal MPs, Mélanie Joly has been given Foreign Affairs, Marc Miller is now Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and Pablo Rodriguez is Minister of Canadian Heritage and Quebec Lieutenant. David Lametti is back as Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
JaneyB 12:39 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
That is really great news about Guilbeault. Finally! He must be thrilled.
walkerp 12:57 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
Guilbeault will be the ultimate abyss test of the liberals and all their empty rhetoric about climate change. Will he actually push for real change or just be a face promoting their latest greenwashing plan that does nothing to challenge industry?
walkerp 12:58 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
And Joly to Foreign Affairs surprises me. I find her amazing in her ability to use so many words without ever saying anything of substance in both english and french. Will be curious to see how she works out.
jeather 13:56 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
I looked at Wikipedia, apparently there are currently 6 indigenous liberal MPs. Wonder why neither of the two cabinet posts about Indigenous people, or relations, were from that group. (Given Jody Wilson-Raybould’s experience, maybe they refused?)
Marc Miller is my MP and I continue to dislike him.
Bert 15:37 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
Does the PM swear in their own Cabinet? Is that not the job of the GG?
EmilyG 15:51 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
Is there any minister of arts/culture? Or did I miss that?
Kate 16:06 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
EmilyG, not as such. The Canada Council and the CBC are managed by Canadian Heritage, so I suppose that’s as close as we get.
Bert, while the MPs take an oath to the Crown (hence the GG) but the cabinet is conceptually the choice of the PM and not the concern of the Crown. I think. I will look it up.
H. John 16:23 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
MPs and cabinet members take the same oath:
Oaths of Allegiance Act
R.S.C., 1985, c. O-1
I, ……………….., do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors. So help me God.
“Swear” can be replaced with “affirm” and the “So help me God” dropped.
H. John 16:33 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
From the House of Commons Procedure and Practice Manual
“The obligation requiring all Members of Parliament to take the oath is found in the Constitution Act, 1867, with the text of the oath itself outlined in the Fifth Schedule.
The Act states: “Every Member of the … House of Commons of Canada shall before taking his Seat therein take and subscribe before the Governor General or some Person authorized by him … the Oath of Allegiance contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act …” The wording of the oath is as follows: “I, (Member’s name), do swear, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.” [208] As an alternative to swearing the oath, Members may make a solemn affirmation, by simply stating: [209] “I, (Member’s name), do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second.””
H. John 16:44 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
At Government House, cabinet members who are returning in the same position are announced and introduced to the Governor General. Those who are assuming a new position take further oath of office:
OATH OF OFFICE
I, _________, do solemnly and sincerely promise and swear (declare) that I will truly and faithfully, and to the best of my skill and knowledge, execute the powers and trusts reposed in me as…
So help me God.
Kate 16:55 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
Thank you, as always, for the clarifications, H. John.
H. John 17:07 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
To personalize the three possibilities during swearing in today’s cabinet:
David Lametti, Minister of Justice & A-G: returning to cabinet in the same position. He’s been sworn in before, so today he was simply introduced to Her Excellency.
Melanie Joly, Minister of Global Affairs. Already a cabinet member but switching positions, so she took a new Oath of Office, and was then introduced to Her Excellency.
Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Sport and Minister responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for Quebec is new to the House of Commons and to the cabinet. She took all three oaths:
Oath of Allegiance, Oath of a Member of the Privy Council, and Oath of Office, followed by being introduced by the PM to the Governor General.
The wording of these oaths can be found here:
https://www.gg.ca/en/official-oaths
Josh 17:09 on 2021-10-26 Permalink
jeather: My understanding from conversations I have had with Indigenous folks is that putting someone from one of those communities into either of those portfolios is a very contentious idea.
This is a piece that gets into why not all Indigenous people necessarily want to see one of their own heading up those ministries: https://www.tvo.org/article/what-justin-trudeau-doesnt-understand-about-indigenous-government-relations
Kate 13:11 on 2021-10-27 Permalink
H. John, if you come back to this thread, I have a question: When the Queen dies, do they have to retake a new oath to the new monarch?
H. John 16:07 on 2021-10-27 Permalink
Kate, the Interpretation Act, R.S.C., 1985, c. I-21 says
Demise of Crown
Effect of demise
46 (1) Where there is a demise of the Crown,
(a) the demise does not affect the holding of any office under the Crown in right of Canada; and
(b) it is not necessary by reason of the demise that the holder of any such office again be appointed thereto or, having taken an oath of office or allegiance before the demise, again take that oath.
The Manual of Official Procedure of the Government of Canada says the Governor General isn’t covered by the above Act and therefore must renew her/his oath, but not Lieutenant-Governors, Privy Councillors, Cabinet ministers, senators, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, other judges, and employees of the public service. It’s silent on MPs, but I would guess they don’t.
In the UK:
“Following the Demise of the Crown (the death or abdication of the current monarch), all Members of Parliament and members of the House of Lords take an oath of allegiance to the new Sovereign at the first meeting of Parliament under a new monarch. The House votes an Address to the Crown in response to the official notification of the previous monarch’s demise, expressing condolences upon the death of the previous monarch and pledging loyalty to his or her successor.”
Kate 19:22 on 2021-10-27 Permalink
Thank you, H. John.
Orr 17:10 on 2021-10-28 Permalink
Walkerp: as you note, Steven Guilbeault proved he was more than willing to follow the Canadian political tradition of new Ministers’ don’t-rock-the-boat Liberal Party regulatory-capture with his abominable Broadcasting Act re-write at Heritage, so I assume he received the extractive industry’s approval to move to Environment.
Steven is smart, and we’ll know soon enough why he is sure Canada definitely needs to keep building those new oil-export pipelines.
Would be more than happy to be surprised at the opposite occurring.