Once Cabinet Minister Karina gets used to the car and a driver she can begin to figure out how to reform the way we elect government's in the future.

By Pepper Parr

January 10th, 2017

BURLINGTON, ON

Karina Gould, 29, is the youngest female cabinet minister in Canadian history.

And now she has her work cut out for her.

There will have a driver to take her from place to place in Ottawa. A larger staff and a social schedule that will get brutal.

And as Minister of Democratic Institutions she has to figure out a way to deliver on the promise the Prime Minister made during the election campaign that he won when Canadians chose him as their Prime Minister.

Candidate Justin Trudeau with his wife and children on election day.

At the time it was a bold political statement that might have slid off the table and be forgotten. When the task of changing the way we elect our government was assigned to a Minister – it was evident that the Prime Minister was serious.

A Special Committee on Electoral Reform (ERRE) was created. It proposed that the government hold a referendum on what the public wanted. The Liberal members of the Special Committee voted against the idea of a referendum.

The report was Adopted by the Committee: November 28, 2016, presented to the House: December 1, 2016 and is awaiting a government response.

Her predecessor was not able to manage the file – nor did she manage to work with the Parliamentary committee that was put in place to come up with proposals on just how the country was going to shift from the FPTP to whatever we were going to have.

The Chief Election Officer appears to be saying that whatever the government decides to do – it may have run out of time to implement whatever change is to take place

Karina Gould poses with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (right) and Gov.-Gen. David Johnston after being sworn in as Minister of Democratic Institutions during a cabinet shuffle at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

That’s the job Gould has walked into. It is also a file that has been close to micro managed by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)

It is going to be difficult for Gould to deliver on the promise.

For two reasons – many, if not most, Canadians don’t have much in the way of an idea as to just what they want.
First past the post has served this country since it was formed. And that has at times given us governments that were elected by something around 35% of the voters – which didn’t satisfy the political parties that were on the losing side.

There are two issues: one a philosophical decision – what is the best way to form governments that reflect the will of the people and then the raw calculating side of politics which for political parties is to determine how they are going to stay in government.

The philosophical side is one that Gould will muse on rather well. She is an educated, sophisticated young woman who has a natural sense of what is right. She is in her heart a true democrat.

But now that she is a Cabinet Minister she has a responsibility to the government – she is part of that government – they are there to govern and in order to govern you have to stay in office.

It was Lord Acton who gave us the dictum: ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. Governments are usually the last to realize that they have been in power too long.

There has never been a government that stood up in its legislature and announced that it was time for them to go. The more they need to be dismissed the harder they fight to remain in office.

Every Liberal in this city is proud of Karina Gould. Even the Tory’s will grudgingly admit that she has done a fine job.

As we go forward we will see what Karina Gould is really made of. Great DNA – let’s see how she uses it.
“Gould is an Oxford University graduate and a trade and investment specialist who worked for the Mexican Trade Commission before her foray into federal politics.

“She volunteered at a Mexican orphanage while a student at McGill University, and later worked as a consultant to the migrant and development program at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., experience that made her a natural fit for the role of parliamentary secretary to the minister of international development, Marie-Claude Bibeau.

“Gould has had an interest in federal politics since a young age. She has pinpointed a visit by former Liberal MP for Burlington, Paddy Torsney, to her high school civics class, as an early inspiration to run for elected office.

“I was so impressed with her,” Gould told the Bay Observer, a Hamilton based newspaper, after her election. “It really inspired me to think it was a real possibility for me as a woman to become an MP.”

Karina Gould on the right looking at some data on a cell phone during her election campaign. Claire LaRocca is centre.

While at McGill university used to sit up late into the night with a friend talking about what she would do as a politician.  That friend came back to Burlington to run her campaign.

Both of her paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors.