LILLEY: The good, the bad, the ugly of Carney's cabinet appointments

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There are hopeful signs in the picks Mark Carney made for cabinet, there are also some worrisome appointments. The main question to be asked, though, is whether these appointees will rise to the challenges facing Canada and can they fix the problems at hand?

The truth is, we don’t know the answer and we won’t know for some time. The best we can do is to speculate.

In many ways, the prime minister’s cabinet is a new government with 24 rookie members who haven’t served in senior government positions before. On the other hand, 14 members of the cabinet were senior members of Justin Trudeau’s government, meaning many of the same old faces are still sitting around the table.

“We are in your service, in the service of building a stronger, more united Canada,” Carney said while standing outside of Rideau Hall after the swearing-in ceremony.

“We will build and we will govern for all Canadians. Build big. Build bold. Build now.”

Let’s hope so because the country needs it.

The appointment of Tim Hodgson as the energy and natural resources minister should be a welcome sign, especially for those in Western Canada looking to ensure that the oil and gas sector isn’t further suffocated. Hodgson has an extensive business resume as an executive, a banker and an adviser to Carney when he was a bank governor.

This could be a sign that Carney is looking for someone to get that building done.

On the other hand, the appointment of Julie Dabrusin as environment minister is a worrying sign. She hasn’t served in cabinet before and doesn’t have a strong track record on this front, but is from the left wing of the Liberal party and represents Toronto–Danforth, one of the most left-wing ridings in the city.

The best that can be said is that Dabrusin isn’t a powerhouse or power broker within the Liberal party and her appointment may signal that this portfolio is taking a back seat to economics.

On the justice front, Carney has decided to appoint Trudeau cabinet minister Sean Fraser. Fraser was in charge of the immigration system when it went from one of the most envied in the world to an outright disaster. He was then was given the housing file, where he failed miserably.

Now he’s being put in charge of Canada’s justice system at a time when violent crime has skyrocketed and premiers of all political stripes have been calling for urgent bail reform to no avail.

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Fraser has little experience with criminal law despite working as a lawyer in Calgary for a few years before running for Parliament in 2015. He spent no time as a Crown prosecutor or defence counsel and there’s no indication that he will take the tough-on-crime approach needed to stop the rising crime wave or repeat offenders from getting out on bail time and again.

Lena Diab, who like Fraser is from Nova Scotia, takes over at immigration. She held this portfolio in the Nova Scotia government of Liberal premier Stephen McNeil, but dealing with immigration in a small province is far different from dealing Canada’s national system.

There should be concerns about whether Diab is up to the job of dealing with the out-of-control temporary foreign worker program, cracking down on the rampant abuse of asylum claims and can bring permanent immigration numbers back down to manageable numbers that the country can absorb easily.

There are also bright spots among the cabinet appointments.

Keeping Dominic LeBlanc as the point person in charge of Canada-U.S. relations is a good move. The job needs someone who knows retail politics, who can work a room and leave everyone feeling good at the end; that person is LeBlanc.

David McGuinty being moved to defence is also a solid promotion for the veteran MP, who is respected across party lines. McGuinty is an often quiet but competent parliamentarian who can get the job done at defence.

For better or worse, Canada is now in their hands. No matter how we voted, for the good of the country, we all need to hope for the better.