DESI GIRL POWER – Rookie Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger also made it into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s gender equality cabinet as she was named minister of small business and.
TORONTO – Rookie Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger has been named minister of small business and tourism in the new Liberal cabinet.
The appointment makes Chagger one of 15 female MPs taking on a minister role in a gender balanced cabinet.
Chagger defeated incumbent Conservative candidate Peter Braid on the Oct. 19 election with 50 per cent of the popular vote.
A long-time Liberal supporter, Bardish Chagger worked as an executive assistant to former Kitchener-Waterloo Liberal MP Andrew Telegdi, who held his seat in the riding from 1993 to 2008.
After working with Telegdi, Bardish took a job at the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre as their special events coordinator.
“A lot of the experiences that I have are allowing me to be able to do a job as a member of Parliament,” said Chagger in an interview with Craig Norris on The Morning Edition.
Chagger is a life-long Waterloo resident, and graduated in 2004 from the University of Waterloo with a bachelor’s degree in science.