First-time MP sworn in as Carney’s lone cabinet minister from Manitoba
Posted May 13, 2025 2:43 pm.
Last Updated May 13, 2025 3:41 pm.
Churchill—Keewatinook Aski MP Rebecca Chartrand was sworn in as a cabinet minister on Tuesday in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.
Chartrand will be the minister of northern and Arctic affairs, and will also have an additional portfolio as the minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.
She replaces Winnipeg South MP Terry Duguid, who briefly served as a cabinet minister under both Mark Carney and Justin Trudeau. Duguid didn’t make the cut in the newly appointed cabinet, which has a total of 28 cabinet ministers and 10 secretaries of state.
In a press release announcing the cabinet, Carney said the new government was elected with a mandate to work on Canada-U.S. relations and the economy, among others.
“Canadians elected this new government with a strong mandate to define a new economic and security relationship with the United States, to build a stronger economy, to reduce the cost of living, and to keep our communities safe. This focused team will act on this mandate for change with urgency and determination,” Carney said.
Chartrand unseated longtime NDP MP Niki Ashton in last month’s federal election, becoming one of a dozen Indigenous MPs in the current parliament, including five Liberals.
As an Anishinaabe, Inninew, Dakota and Métis from Manitoba, Chartrand was one of multiple Indigenous members named to the cabinet by Carney.
Other Indigenous members are Quebec MP Mandy Gull-Masty, who will head the Indigenous services ministry, and lone Saskatchewan Liberal MP Buckley Belanger, who was sworn in as secretary of state for rural development.
