EDMONTON — Congratulations are pouring in for the two Alberta MPs appointed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet Wednesday morning.
Edmonton Mill Woods MP Amarjeet Sohi was named Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, while Calgary Centre MP Kent Hehr was appointed Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence.
Sohi was elected to Edmonton City Council three times, serving from 2007 to 2015.
Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said he’s thrilled someone with Sohi’s knowledge of municipal government was appointed to cabinet.
“With that comes great expectations about follow-through on the funding for transit, for infrastructure, the needed work on housing,” said Iveson.
“But Amarjeet knows all those files and I look forward to working closely with him to help the federal government be successful in those areas, and in turn help cities and communities deliver on the basic needs of their citizens.”
WATCH: Amarjeet Sohi sworn in as Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
Hehr was a Liberal MLA from 2008 to 2015, and served as the party’s shadow critic for Justice.
WATCH: The portfolios of Alberta’s Kent Hehr and Amarjeet Sohi are very significant. Provincial Affairs reporter Tom Vernon takes a look.
WATCH: Kent Hehr named Veterans Affairs Minister
The appointments mean Alberta will have two voices at the cabinet table, even though the province elected just four Liberal MPs out of the 184 member government caucus.
Along with their political experience, both Sohi and Hehr bring diverse personal experience to the table. Sohi was imprisoned in India on charges that were later found to have no merit, and worked as a bus driver before being elected to Edmonton City Council. Hehr was avid hockey player who was the victim of a drive-by shooting at the age of 21, that left him a quadriplegic. He practised law before entering provincial politics.
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WATCH: Global’s Gord Gillies takes you through the perks of being a Federal Cabinet Minister.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley congratulated Trudeau and the new cabinet ministers in a statement, and said she was confident Sohi and Hehr would be “a strong voice for Alberta in the federal government.”
“Having the right people in the right roles is one of the most important decisions a leader must make,” she said in the statement. “I know Alberta has benefited from having women equally represented around the cabinet table. I commend the prime minister on achieving gender balance in his cabinet.”
Watch below: Alberta has now has two high-profile representatives in Ottawa. As Erin Chalmers explains, Edmonton’s Amarjeet Sohi and Calgary’s Kent Hehr were both sworn in as cabinet ministers on Wednesday morning.
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