Trudeau’s Quick New Year’s Cabinet Shuffle Brings Three New Faces Including Somalian Immigrant Who Becomes Immigration Minister

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No New Indo-Canadian Including Left-Over Sukh Dhaliwal Added To Cabinet!

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made some major changes at a quick new year cabinet shuffle that saw three new cabinet faces but no addition of more Indo-Canadians including that of rumoured Sukh Dhaliwal getting a junior ministry after he was left out of Trudeau’s initial cabinet making.

The new privy councillors include Canada’s first Somali-Canadian MP, the youngest female cabinet minister in the country’s history and a rising star from former prime minister Jean Chrétien’s hometown.

Long-time Liberal MP John McCallum, who had been the immigration minister, is leaving federal politics for Beijing, where he will become Canada’s ambassador to China, and he will cede his immigration post to Ahmed Hussen, the first black Canadian to serve in Trudeau’s cabinet, reported CBC News.

The Somali-born Hussen came to Canada as a refugee at the tender age of 16 after fleeing his war-ravaged native land.

After arriving from Mogadishu, he became a track and field star at his Hamilton high school before moving to Toronto to live with an older brother in the city’s Regent Park public housing development. He worked at a gas station in Mississauga, an hour commute from his home, to scrape together enough money for tuition at York University.

Along the way, he volunteered with Ontario Liberal Party and was brought into former premier Dalton McGuinty’s office after the 2003 election campaign ended Tory rule in the province. It was there that he first crossed paths with the likes of Gerald Butts and Katie Telford, now Trudeau’s top lieutenants who also worked at Queen’s Park.

Hussen, 39, became an advocate for his impoverished community inside the premier’s office and helped secure millions in funding to revitalize his dilapidated housing project. Later, he left to become president of the Canadian Somali Congress.

His victory in York South–Weston was a source of pride for many of his fellow Somalis — who form a sizable voting block in the north Toronto riding — but Hussen has insisted he does not want to be seen as a token MP.

“I’m Canadian” Hussen told CBC News after his election.

“Somali is my heritage, and I’m proud of my heritage, but I have a lot to contribute to Canada, and I’m a mainstream guy, I’m not limited by my community. Everyone has a heritage, but we have a shared citizenship.”

The other ministers include Karina Gould, who becomes minister of democratic institutions. She is the youngest of Trudeau’s ministers at just 29. She is also the youngest female cabinet minister in Canadian history.

The third new face is François-Philippe Champagne, who has been a strong lieutenant of Finance Minister Bill Morneau over the past year, and will now take a seat at the cabinet table as the minister of international trade. Champagne takes over the hot file as support for global trade wanes in much of the Western world amid an ascendency of protectionist rhetoric.