Ottawa, Nov 21 (UNI) Four Indian-origin persons figured in Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's new 36-member cabinet.
The cabinet Trudeau unveiled on Wednesday features seven new faces. Among them is Anita Anand, Minister of public services and procurement.
The Liberal Party website describes Anand as a scholar, lawyer and mother of four. She was first elected this fall in Oakville, and is now on leave as a law professor at the University of Toronto, where she has taught since 2006 and most recently held a chair position in “investor protection and corporate governance.”
Anand takes over a portfolio that oversees billions of dollars in public spending, including the purchase of military hardware, reports the Toronto Star newspaper.
She will also assume responsibility for Phoenix, the computerized pay system that has disrupted compensation for thousands of federal civil servants.
The three other Indian-origin cabinet members, all Sikhs, are Harjit Sajjan, Navdeep Bains ad Bardish Chagger.
Sajjan remains the minister of national defence, while Bains has been allotted the industry portfolio, beside innovation and science that he held in the previous government.
Chagger, who was the government House leader in the last Parliament, will take on diversity and inclusion and youth.
The most notable shift is of former Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland who has become deputy prime minister and minister of intergovernmental affairs.
Trudeau's Liberal Party retained power in the October election.
UNI SRJ