Don't be fooled.

Bardish Chagger, our newly minted Liberal MP from Waterloo riding, has a huge new responsibility now that she's a member of cabinet.

It's tempting to think of her portfolio, Small Business and Tourism, as minor stuff.

After all, Small Business is where her predecessor, Conservative MP Maxime Bernier, got parked after that scandal in 2008, in which confidential documents were left behind at the home of his ex-girlfriend, who had past ties with biker gangs. Bernier left his post as minister of Foreign Affairs. He resurfaced in Small Business and Tourism in 2013.

But small business is not small potatoes. Of 1.1 million businesses that have employees in Canada, one million are small. (Industry Canada defines a small business as one with fewer than 100 employees.)

These are the businesses that create the vast majority of private-sector jobs in the country.

And small businesses are also the most resilient of our private-sector employers. As creators of jobs, they bounced back better than medium-sized and big businesses after the recession of 2008-09. But small business is also more vulnerable to new initiatives like higher minimum wages, or a beefed-up Canada Pension Plan.

It will be an important job to listen to, and speak up for, these essential engines of the economy.

One of Chagger's first tasks will probably be to smooth some ruffled feathers after her boss, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, made a controversial comment in the election campaign.

"We have to know that a large percentage of small businesses are actually just ways for wealthier Canadians to save on their taxes, and we want to reward the people who are actually creating jobs, and contributing in concrete ways," Trudeau said in September.

The New Democrats and Conservatives both attacked Trudeau for suggesting that small businesses are tax scammers. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business was also concerned, pointing out that 80 per cent of small-business owners earn less than $100,000 a year, and almost half earn less than $50,000.

Chagger is just 35, and she doesn't have much experience with businesses.

But she has a vast array of personal skills, and insights gained from life experience, that money can't buy.

Chagger comes from a working-class Sikh family that immigrated from Punjab, India, in the 1970s. Her grandparents and father worked in a Waterloo carpet factory. Her family suffered from racist attacks at times. Rocks were thrown at the house.

But the family persevered in search of the better life they'd come for. Partly by getting involved in the Liberal party, Chagger became an integral part of the community.

She got a science degree from University of Waterloo, then worked in the office of her Liberal MP. Later, she organized programs to help new immigrants more easily become part of Canadian society.

Now, Chagger has one of the most important jobs in the country.

Life has taught her the importance of including all points of view and inviting a stranger into the tent. She is a good listener, with superb people skills. She is a creative problem-solver and strategic thinker. She is as smart as can be. And she will do a great job in cabinet.

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