Prime Minister Harper’s New Cabinet: New Faces and Roles

CCA Bul­letin 45/08

Octo­ber 30th, 2008

Just the Facts

This morn­ing, the Gov­er­nor Gen­eral of Canada, the Right Hon. Michaëlle Jean, presided over the swear­ing in of Canada’s new Cab­i­net. The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) would like to take this oppor­tu­nity to wel­come the new Min­is­ter of Cana­dian Her­itage and Offi­cial Lan­guages, the Hon. James Moore. The CCA looks for­ward to work­ing with the Min­is­ter and Depart­ment of Cana­dian Her­itage to encour­age a promi­nent sta­tion for the arts and cul­tural sec­tor within Canada and abroad.

To learn more about the Hon. James Moore’s polit­i­cal career, go to his offi­cial Par­lia­men­tary biog­ra­phy.

Mr. Moore brings an inter­est­ing assort­ment of expe­ri­ences to the posi­tion as a for­mer broad­caster, econ­o­mist, and Sec­re­tary of State for the 2010 Olympics, the Asia-Pacific Gate­way, and Offi­cial Lan­guages. He is one of the youngest Min­is­ters of Cana­dian Her­itage ever and has been handed a com­plex port­fo­lio from the 39th Parliament.

Arts and cul­ture, and recent cuts to a num­ber of pro­grams, have played an unusu­ally promi­nent role in the recent fed­eral elec­tion. Mr. Moore’s pre­de­ces­sor, the Hon. Josée Verner, indi­cated dur­ing the elec­tion cam­paign that some of the pro­grams that were among those cut are being re-engineered. This will no doubt be a file that the cul­tural sec­tor will be fol­low­ing very closely. Another file which should get the urgent atten­tion of the Min­is­ter is the Bill amend­ing the Copy­right Act: Bill C-61, which received first read­ing last June, died on the Order Paper fur­ther to the launch­ing of the election.

Min­is­ter Moore’s eco­nomic back­ground may help to pro­mote both the cre­ative econ­omy and the pro­grams nec­es­sary to sup­port cul­tural pro­duc­tion and pro­mo­tion in Canada and around the world. Pro­grams such as Pro­mArt and Trader­outes, fund­ing train­ing for film and video, and other such invest­ments need to be refor­mu­lated to sus­tain the impres­sive eco­nomic con­tri­bu­tions that the cul­tural sec­tor makes to the Cana­dian economy.

In other appoint­ments, the Hon. Lawrence Can­non becomes Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs. Min­is­ter Can­non is the Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for Pon­tiac rid­ing in Québec. It is the hope of the CCA that he will renew the com­mit­ment of his depart­ment to the pro­mo­tion of Cana­dian cul­ture inter­na­tion­ally and restore the capac­ity of Cana­dian embassies and mis­sions abroad to sup­port the efforts of our artists, cre­ators, and arts professionals.

Tell Me More

For­merly at Cana­dian Her­itage, Min­is­ter Josée Verner becomes Min­is­ter of Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Affairs, Pres­i­dent of the Queen’s Privy Coun­cil and Min­is­ter for the Francophonie.

There is also a new Min­is­ter of Human Resource and Social Devel­op­ment (HRSD). The Hon. Diane Fin­ley held the posi­tion in 2006 and was appointed Min­is­ter of Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion in 2007. The CCA will be mon­i­tor­ing HRSD depart­ment for fur­ther devo­lu­tion of human resource respon­si­bil­i­ties to the provinces.

Canada’s 40th Par­lia­ment boasts a Cab­i­net with a sig­nif­i­cant rep­re­sen­ta­tion of women, with a total of 11 serv­ing as either Min­is­ters or Min­is­ters of State. For the com­plete list of the new Cab­i­net mem­bers and their biogra­phies, please go to http://pm.gc.ca/eng/cabinet.asp

Par­lia­ment will resume on Novem­ber 18, 2008 and the Speech from the Throne will fol­low the next day. This will give a clear indi­ca­tion of the pri­or­i­ties of the Harper gov­ern­ment and the role that the new Min­is­ters will play in ful­fill­ing the new agenda.