{"id":126,"date":"2016-11-15T21:23:32","date_gmt":"2016-11-15T21:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/?p=126"},"modified":"2016-11-22T16:00:50","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T16:00:50","slug":"rookie-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/2016\/11\/15\/rookie-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Rookie of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s obvious why everyone wants to be Bardish Chagger\u2019s friend. The novice MP\u2014already the Minister for Small Business and Tourism and now also the government House leader\u2014looks naturally at ease among her constituents in the Kitchener Market on a recent Saturday, offering broad grins and friendly waves to all those passing through, sipping her Tim Hortons coffee through a straw.<\/p>\n<p>Not so long ago, a politician like Chagger\u2014young, female and a visible minority\u2014might have been relegated to the backbench. But instead, she\u2019s been handed real decision-making power, and there are some changes she wants to make.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to be able to shake them up a little bit,\u201d Chagger said, in an interview, adding that the best way is \u201cto bring in somebody that\u2019s not been in the halls of Parliament for too long, somebody who does question and challenge decisions that are being made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/293156555&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>First elected in October 2015 as the Member of Parliament for Waterloo\u201422 years after she first planted a Liberal sign on a front lawn for the then MP, Andrew Telegdi, whom she later served as executive assistant\u2014Chagger is also the first woman to be appointed Leader of the House.<\/p>\n<p>The position calls for a steady hand and a thorough knowledge of parliamentary procedure, the kind of job not usually assigned to a young, first-time MP. At 36, Chagger is one of the youngest members in the cabinet, second only to the 31-year-old Maryam Monsef. Given that she was one of the co-leads for Trudeau\u2019s Southwestern Ontario campaign, few observers were surprised when Chagger was named Minister for Small Business and Tourism. But her appointment as House leader, this August, certainly made waves, Jim Bronskill wrote in the Huffington Post at the time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy having a government that looks like Canada, I believe, we\u2019re more relevant because people can relate to us as well,\u201d Chagger said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/293157231&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hasn\u2019t just paid lip service to diversity, appointing more women, visible minorities and people with disabilities to his cabinet than any previous PM. There are now 18 rookies and 15 women in a cabinet of 30. Jodi Wilson-Raybould of the Kwakwaka\u2019wakw peoples, a former Crown prosecutor from British Columbia, has become the first indigenous Minister of Justice. Trudeau gambled by appointing so many novice MPs to cabinet, but it may pay off, especially with Chagger.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-130 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image-300x138.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"446\" height=\"205\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image-768x354.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/image.jpg 884w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 446px) 100vw, 446px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was always very interested in policy,\u201d Telegedi said over the phone, \u201cand always well-liked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Telegi said Chagger has the diplomatic skills necessary to navigate the role.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Davis, a lawyer who knew Chagger when they were both Young Liberals at the University of Waterloo, says Chagger has \u201calways been community-minded and an exceptionally hard-worker.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chagger recognizes the value of maintaining an open line of communication with the opposition, and plans to focus on teamwork rather than control in her role as House leader.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not about one individual, it\u2019s about the team that one comes with, one builds, one empowers,\u201d said Chagger.<\/p>\n<p>She understands that the government can\u2019t be \u201ceverything to everyone,\u201d but Chagger and her fellow ministers are willing to try.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=thedriftcu\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s obvious why everyone wants to be Bardish Chagger\u2019s friend. The novice MP\u2014already the Minister for Small Business and Tourism and now also the government House leader\u2014looks naturally at ease among her constituents in the Kitchener Market on a recent Saturday, offering broad grins and friendly waves to all those passing through, sipping her Tim [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":74,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[56,22,34,49],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-edition","tag-bardish-chagger","tag-canada","tag-liberal","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cusjc.ca\/drift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}