Justin Trudeau’s 50-50 cabinet: How does Canada compare to other countries?

Moreover, he said that Canadians can now expect “a more open and transparent” government.

The prime minister’s Cabinet appointments reflect the sunny, youthful style that helped him put an end to almost a decade of Conservative Party rule under the previous prime minister, Stephen Harper.

“They’ve just been elected to Parliament, let alone cabinet”, Cameron said.

Harper had declined to resettle more Syrian refugees, despite the haunting image of a drowned 3-year-old boy washed up on a Turkish beach that focused global attention on the migrant crisis stemming from the civil war. The boy had relatives in Canada.

Bains, who became MP for the third time last month by winning from Mississauga-Brampton, previously served as parliamentary secretary to the prime minister in 2005 when he was MP from 2004 till 2011 when he lost.

Trudeau, the first son of a prime minister to take office in Canada and the second-youngest in the country’s history, has grabbed global attention for his good looks and retail approach to politics.

For his part, Trudeau believes the pipeline should be approved, but does not think that that the disagreement should weigh so heavily on US-Canada relations. “We are going to work very hard to ensure we have a better future”.

The composition of the new cabinet was revealed at the ceremony.

“It meant that he was elevating a few people to Cabinet who had zero political experience”, Lynch says.

Former Liberal Party leader Stéphane Dion is now in charge of Canada’s external affairs.

Sajjan is a Lieutenant-Colonel in Canada’s armed forces and was deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Women also hold senior positions, among them Chrystia Freeland in Trade, Wilson-Raybould in Justice and Catherine McKenna in the newly-renamed Environment and Climate Change. Among his first acts was to appoint a cabinet of 30 members – and exactly half of them are women.

When asked why he wanted gender parity (fancy word for 50:50 representation) in his cabinet, he merely shrugged and said ‘Because it’s 2015’.

The ceremony took place at Rideau Hall before a crowd of dignitaries and Liberal luminaries, including former prime ministers Jean Chretien and John Turner, as well as friends and family members. Trudeau has said improved environmental performance is critical for the approval of projects such as TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Energy East pipeline, though how he intends to proceed remains unclear.