Washington: Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has introduced the most diverse Cabinet in the country’s history, with 50 percent women and four Indians figuring in the same.
The Cabinet is now gender equal, with 15 of 30 senior ministerial posts being held by women, the Washington Post reported.
Canada’s new Defence Minister is Sikh origin Harjit Sajjan, a former police officer and veteran of three military deployments to Afghanistan.
Sajjan became a social media celebrity soon after the Cabinet was introduced.
Amarjeet Sohi was sworn-in as Canada’s Minister of Infrastructure.
51-year-old Sohi, who was born in India, immigrated to Edmonton in 1981. He worked as a bus driver and was arrested under accusations of terrorism in 1988. After being freed in 1990, Sohi returned to Canada.
38-year-old Navdeep Bains, a business school professor, has been given the Innovation, Science And Economic Development portfolio in Trudeau’s Cabinet.
Bardish Chagger, the daughter of Sikh immigrants, is the only woman among the four Indians in the Cabinet. She has been given the Small Business and Tourism portfolio. Her parents immigrated to Waterloo in Canada from India in the 1970s. (ANI)