With his cabinet picks, Trudeau signals he's a PM in a hurry

Justin Trudeaudescribedhis new cabinet Tuesdayas"a team of familiar faces and new faces that are ready to put all their strengths, all their hard worktowarddelivering for Canadians in the coming years."

"Delivering" may bethe key word here.

According to a senior Liberal source, the speed and urgency with which the government was able to operate while responding to the pandemiccrisisled the prime minister to wonder whether the government could move faster and more ambitiously to deal with challenges like climate change and the housing shortage.

Even asCOVID-19 slowly recedes, there's no shortage of issues that can or should be viewed as crises not only climate change and housingbut things like reconciliation, economic growth and failures of leadership within the Canadian Forces.

The clock is ticking

The government alsomay nowassumeit has two years to run before another election which is both a decent amount of time to do some things and not a lot of time if you want or need to do a lot.

Every federal cabinet in history has been put togetherwith the goal ofactually gettinga few things done. But if thedemands of themoment are urgent and if this government particularly needs to showit can make realprogress then the question is whether this isa cabinet built to deliver.

Viewed from that angle, Tuesday'sannouncement saw a number of intriguing moves.

Trudeau's first cabinet, unveiled six years ago on a sunny day, was conspicuously flashy and not just because it established a new standard for gender parity. The health minister was a doctor, the finance minister was a CEO and the defence minister was a decorated soldier. The justice minister was an Indigenous lawyer. There was an astronaut.

One can debate how well that firstcabinet worked out.

A team of familiar faces

Six years later, on a cold and rainy day, Trudeauunveileda cabinet of people he has known for years (including friends and long-time associates likeMlanieJoly, OmarAlghabra, Marc Miller, Mark Holland, DominicLeBlancand Seamus O'Regan) and people he presumably trusts.

It's decidedly less flashy. There is no longer aminister of middle class prosperity. And even the astronaut is out MarcGarneauis apparently scheduled to blast off to an overseas diplomatic appointment in the near future.

The flashiest, most 2015-likeappointment on Tuesdaywas that of StevenGuilbeault, the celebrated environmental activist and Trudeau's new minister of the environment. That move may beexciting for environmental groups and thevoters who would like to see the government move aggressively against climate change. But in terms of getting things done, it's also a gamble.

For one thing,Guilbeault'simmediate predecessor Jonathan Wilkinson made steady progress on the government's policy goals while proving to be a smart and practical, though unexciting, communicator. For another,Guilbeaultwas nothing like that while serving as heritage minister.The fight over his signature legislative initiativewas particularly loud,messy and ultimately unsuccessful.

Wilkinson is at least not going very far. As natural resources minister he could have a significant role to play in the government's climate agenda, presumably including the Liberal commitment to legislate emissions limits for the oil and gas industry.

After the prime minister himself madea messwith his unfortunate excursion toTofino,the Indigenousreconciliation agenda is now in the hands of Miller (who replaces Carolyn Bennett as minister of Crown-Indigenous relations) and PattyHajdu(who replaces Miller at Indigenous Services).

Miller, like Wilkinson, has seemed steady and effective while Bennettrecently faced calls for her resignationafter she sent ataunting text message to Jody Wilson-Raybould.Hajduhas been criticized for her public handling of the pandemic, but the prime minister appears to have faith that she can handle a closely watched and high-stakes file that is all about delivery.

The mess at the Department of National Defence is now in the hands of AnitaAnand, a former law professor who proved adept at handling the single most important file this government had over the last two years: vaccine procurement.

WATCH: Trudeau discusses appointment of new defence minister

Trudeau discusses appointment of new defence minister

3 years ago

Duration 1:23

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to questions about the newly appointed Defence Minister Anita Anand.

The health file now belongs to an earnest economist, Jean-YvesDuclos, who was last in charge of overseeing the government's paperwork as president of the Treasury Board. The housing dilemma gets its own minister in AhmedHussen.

Meanwhile, responsibility for making legislative progress on any of these fronts will be shared by a new government House leader, Mark Holland.(Trudeau and Holland haveknown each other since they were both opposition MPs.)

"One of the things we saw very clearly in this election was that Canadians are expecting big things to be done by Parliament and by this government," Trudeau said Tuesday.

The pace of action during the pandemic likely was not sustainable and the federal response was not exactly a model of flawless execution. In their haste, for instance, the prime minister and his teamwalked right into the entirely avoidable WE affair. And the wisdom of some of the pandemic policies enacted like the federal wage subsidy will be debated for years.

But Trudeau's government is constantly chased fairly or not by claims that ithasn't amounted to much. As the subject line of a Conservative fundraising email put it on Tuesday afternoon, "Trudeau's cabinet = style over substance."

Trudeau bristles at such criticism. But any government that's been in office for six years has little room to sell itself on things like promise and symbolism and a greater need to show that it's still delivering tangible results.

WATCH: Trudeau says he'll lead the Liberals into the next election

Trudeau says he plans to lead Liberals into the next federal election

3 years ago

Duration 0:14

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tells reporters on Oct. 26, 2020, that he does intend to stay on as Liberal Party leader into the next federal election.

Trudeau was asked Tuesday whether he plans to lead the Liberal Party into the next election.He said yes, enthusiastically.

There really is only one way for a prime minister who isn't planning to quit tomorrow to answer that question. But regardless of who leads the Liberals into the next election, these next two years could provepivotal to both the party's re-election hopes and this government's legacy.

The prime minister gave himself a month to pick this cabinet and he has given this cabinet another month to get ready for Parliament. By then, it will have few excuses for not hitting the ground running and there will be a great pressure on it to deliver as Trudeau has promised.