Indian-origin Anita Anand is Canada's new Defence Minister

Indianorigin Canadian politician Anita Anand was on Tuesday appointed as the countrys new Defence Minister in a Cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over a month after his Liberal Party returned power in the snap polls and amid calls for major military reformsAnand 54 will replace longtime defence minister Indianorigin Harjit Sajjan whose handling of the military sexual misconduct crisis has been under criticismSajjan has been appointed as Minister of International Development Agency a report in the National Post newspaper saidThe new Cabinet maintains gender balance and has 38 members up one person from before the election it saidAccording to a report in Global News Anand has been touted as a strong contender for weeks among defence industry experts who said that moving her into the role would send a powerful signal to survivors and victims of military sexual misconduct that the government is serious about implementing major reformsThe Canadian military is facing intense public and political pressure to change its culture and create better systems for both preventing and handling sexual misconduct allegations it saidAnand has a deep background as a corporate lawyer and has worked extensively on corporate governance which refers specifically to the laws and rules in place to manage the operations of businesses the report saidAnand along with Sajjan and Bardish Chagger were the three IndoCanadian ministers in the dissolved Cabinet who emerged victorious in the parliamentary polls last monthAnand was declared the winner in Oakville with a nearly 46 per cent vote share a significant development for Canadas vaccine ministerShe was first elected as a rookie Member of Parliament in 2019 representing Oakville in Ontario province and served as procurement minister throughout the COVID19 pandemicShe quickly became in charge of the countrys efforts to secure COVID19 vaccines and was often on the campaign trail with TrudeauIn her role as former Minister of Public Services and Procurement she played a very public role in the Liberal response to the health crisisIm just ecstatic she had said after her win thanking the volunteers who had worked iquestextremely hard as a team for five weeks straightiquest she was quoted as saying by the Oakville NewsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever