Trudeau splits Indigenous affairs, names personal friend to veterans affairs
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau used a mid-mandate mini-shuffle Monday to shore up his cabinet in two areas where his government has fallen far short of his soaring campaign rhetoric: veterans and Indigenous affairs.
In the most dramatic move, Trudeau split Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada into two separate departments and appointed one of his most reliable, competent ministers, Jane Philpott, to one of them — a move billed as ending the “colonial” approach to Indigenous Peoples, with the ultimate goal of encouraging self-government and doing away with the “paternalistic” Indian Act.
He also named a personal friend, rookie MP and former television host Seamus O’Regan, to the veterans affairs post, replacing Kent Hehr, who has been heavily criticized for dragging his feet on the Liberals’ promise to restore lifelong disability pensions for injured ex-soldiers.
But nowhere were Trudeau’s campaign promises more likely to come back to bite him than on the aboriginal file. Upon taking office, he raised sky-high expectations with his assertion that “no relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous Peoples. It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership.”