ADAM RASMI is a Toronto-based writer and journalist.
“Sunny ways, my friends. Sunny ways. This is what positive politics can do,” said Justin Trudeau, the new Canadian prime minister, in his victory speech in Montreal on October 19. The remarks were a direct nod to Sir Wilfrid Laurier, a former Canadian prime minister known for his pleasant manner and ability to forge compromises. Trudeau’s speech underscored how different he would be from his conservative predecessor, Stephen Harper, whom the Canadian historian Robert Bothwell recently called “the most cynical prime minister in Canadian history.”
After a 78-day campaign in which identity issues featured prominently, Trudeau’s first steps have been to emphasize diversity. His 31-member cabinet, which he unveiled as one that looks “like Canada,” is the most diverse the country has ever seen. Two indigenous Canadians were tapped to become minister of justice and attorney general; a Muslim woman of Afghan descent, Maryam Monsef, who came to Canada as a refugee in 1996, became minister of democratic institutions; four members of the Sikh community
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Trudeau supported the Keystone XL pipeline (which the Obama administration recently rejected) and the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Dion, recently said the government is willing to back the much larger Energy East Pipeline, which would increase Canada’s carbon emissions by up to 32 million tons per year. In one of the more telling incidents from Trudeau’s campaign, he reportedly sought the endorsement of the environmental icon David Suzuki but was rebuffed. Suzuki pointed out that 80 percent of the oil sands had to stay in the ground if the government was serious about the environment. (Trudeau called Suzuki’s views “sanctimonious crap”; Suzuki responded by calling him a