Ottawa: Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled an inward-looking cabinet Wednesday, it featured newcomer Anita Indira Anand, making her the first Hindu to be a federal minister in the country.
The cabinet has three other Indo-Canadian ministers, all Sikhs, and each of whom was a member of the previous government.
Anita was first elected to the House of Commons in the October federal elections, she was named the minister of public services and procurement.
Anita a mother to four children as well as a law professor at the University of Toronto. Both her parents are Indian medical professionals, her late mother Saroj Ram was from the Amritsar area in Punjab and her father SV Anand is a Tamilian.
Trudeau expanded his cabinet to a slightly larger 36 members after the Liberals lost 20 seats on October 21, reducing a once-mighty juggernaut to a minority government.
The laundry list of looming issues is also longer and more complex than when Trudeau took office in 2015 -- including a slowing economy and geographic political divisions.
"As we move forward on issues that matter across the country like energy and environment and other large issues, we will have to engage in a strong and positive way with different orders of government right across the country," said Trudeau.
Several ministers in Trudeau's previous cabinet kept their jobs in the shuffle: David Lametti remains justice minister, Bill Morneau keeps his finance portfolio and Harjit Sajjan stays at defence. Former cop Bill Blair was made public safety minister and will work on tougher gun-control measures.
