OTTAWA – Less than two months after forming his first government, Mark Carney will do it again tomorrow, Tuesday, presenting his new team in the swearing-in ceremony presided over by Governor General Mary Simon, and scheduled at Rideau Hall, starting at 10:30am.
There is great curiosity surrounding the event: in fact, people are wondering whether the prime minister-elect by the people will make different choices from the prime minister-chosen by the Liberals as their leader, after Justin Trudeau’s step down. The person is the same, Mark Carney, but two months ago he had in some way the obligation to guarantee a certain continuity to lead the country to the elections and therefore he had also choosen among the outgoing ministers; now, the mandate has been conferred to him by the voters and this should guarantee him greater freedom of action, while remaining true to the “limits” that he will inevitably have to respect, such as geographical and gender balance.
On the latter, Carney had promised to maintain parity in the choice of Liberal candidates for the House of Commons: it remains to be seen whether he intends to extend it beyond his pre-election selection. Then there is the geographical balance: Carney will have to try to give representation to every area of Canada. At the same time, he will not be able to ignore the skills, to try to form a high-profile team. And then, again, there is the ethnic question: the communities represented in the House of Commons are many and Carney will have to give a synthesis of them in his Cabinet.
This is where the Italians – always well represented in Parliament – come into play. In this round, the elected Italian-Canadian are thirteen, of which six in the ranks of the Liberal Party: three are “outsiders” (Vince Gasparro, Giovanna Mingarelli and John Zerucelli, elected in Ontario) and three are very experienced figures (Angelo Iacono, Francis Scarpaleggia and Patricia Lattanzio, elected in Quebec). Will Carney choose one of them? Certainly, he must take into account the weight that the Italian community has always had, and continues to have, in Canada.
Other ethnic groups could claim “a place in the sun”, like the Indigenous candidates who have reached the historic milestone of twelve elected deputies. And the examples could continue.
Among other liberals, according to the analysis made in recent days by CTV, faces to keep an eye on are: Former Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, Calgary’s Corey Hogan, former Saskatchewan minister Buckley Belanger, former broadcaster Evan Solomon, and engineer and survivor of the École Polytechnique mass shooting Nathalie Provost. There’s also speculation swirling about these new recruits: former IBM Canada CEO Claude Guay, Trois-Rivieres’ economist Caroline Desrochers, former Quebec finance minister Carlos Leitão, and Tim Hodgson, who is a former Goldman Sachs CEO and an ex-advisor to Carney at the Bank of Canada. Among the veterans to watch are: International Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly, Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Industry Minister Anita Anand, Transport and Internal Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Canadian Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault.
“I committed to an efficient cabinet, a focused cabinet,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa this time last week. And he will need it, given the challenges ahead.
Photo: Twitter X- @MarkJCarney
