Canada’s new prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his cabinet Wednesday, and fifteen of the thirty-one cabinet members are women. A reporter asked him about this during a press conference after his swearing-in, and his response was amazing.
Full video here.
I first heard about this story through one of my favorite internet comedians, Kathleen De Veere of Loading Ready Run. She offered some commentary on twitter.
Asked why he went with gender parity in his cabinet, Trudeau says "Because it's 2015" https://t.co/QWEKJjPR5i pic.twitter.com/eF7YpMYxvZ
— CBC News (@CBCNews) November 4, 2015
Lotta angry dudes who suddenly care about “merit” because there are 14 women in the cabinet.
— Kathleen De Vere (@Kathleen_LRR) November 4, 2015
Everyone I’ve read about seems qualified. Qualtrough, minister for Sport and Disabilites is a Paralympic medalist.https://t.co/UPTVWO8KQ4
— Kathleen De Vere (@Kathleen_LRR) November 4, 2015
The outgoing dude in that portfolio had no sport experience. Didn’t see any complaints about qualifications then.https://t.co/eBTLXfc7T8
— Kathleen De Vere (@Kathleen_LRR) November 4, 2015
Isn’t it funny that men are automatically assumed competent, but as soon as a woman gets the job, it’s a question of how qualified she is?
— Kathleen De Vere (@Kathleen_LRR) November 4, 2015
While there may be grumbling from some parts of the internet, this new cabinet represents a huge step forward for Canadian politics.
Kelly Turnbull shared an image with even more great details.
https://twitter.com/Coelasquid/status/662362411639304192/
If this is the first you’re hearing about Canada’s new prime minister, John Oliver gave us a rundown of the candidates in October, just prior to the election. Trudeau grew up in the public eye, so there’s a lot of random stuff from when he was younger scattered around the internet. At forty-three, he is Canada’s second youngest prime minister ever, and his somewhat silly past provides gives us a preview of the kind of things we’ll learn about politicians when we start electing people young enough to have grown up on social media.
Luckily, Justin Trudeau demonstrates that you can be a serious politician and still have a sense of humor. Canada’s new PM is surrounding himself with qualified advisers and living in the present, and that’s given a lot of Canadians hope.
A few of them may also have gotten a new wallpaper for their phones.
This is TOTALLY the picture my Canadian friend has on her phone, not the one from when he was a boxer.
