Women’s groups hope Trudeau’s 50-50 cabinet will inspire other institutions

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

“But we don’t have 50-50 men and women in the parliament”, he said.

Former native chief Jody Wilson-Raybould was named Canada’s first aboriginal justice minister, and is expected to shepherd a key Liberal election promise of holding a public inquiry into the fate of more than 1,000 missing and murdered aboriginal women. “He was the best single Canadian intelligence asset in theatre, and his hard work, personal bravery, and dogged determination undoubtedly saved a multitude of Coalition lives”, said Brigadier-General David Fraser in a letter to the Vancouver Police Department, where he served.

Trudeau’s succinct explanation of why he created a cabinet with equal numbers of men and women, “Because it’s 2015”, generated worldwide attention.

The cabinet, 30 ministers plus Trudeau, included rookie politician and corporate executive Bill Morneau as finance minister and former Liberal leader Stephane Dion as foreign minister, a split between the old and the new reflected throughout the team.

The list of ministers on the newly revised government website also lists only ministers, not ministers of state.

Women make up half of the Cabinet.

When asked about the observance of gender equality in his cabinet, he answered, “Because it’s 2015”. “A sunny day for sunny ways”.

Not so, says the office of the new prime minister: It’s just a matter of the Treasury Board statutes catching up to reality.

The conservative prime minister was also angered by Mr Obama’s reluctance to approve the Keystone XL pipeline that was created to transport petroleum from Alberta to Texas. Although Trudeau supports the pipeline, he argues relations should not hinge on the project.

Later in the month, he will attend the Commonwealth leaders’ summit in Malta and then go on to Paris for what is widely seen as the main event in this opening round of travel: the worldwide climate change conference in Paris.

The 43-year-old former bartender led his Liberal party to a landslide victory on October 19, dealing a crushing blow to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. Conventional wisdom is that the party in power is always least motivated to change the system that got them there.