When I graduated from university with a degree in English literature and began writing a column about current affairs, my biggest challenge was overcoming a profound lack of interest in Canadian politics. I watched CPAC — the televised proceedings of the House of Commons — in hopes of igniting a civic passion and instead discovered a soporific more powerful than 10 turkey dinners.

“Try to think about politics like daytime TV,” a politically inclined friend advised me. “Picture every member of Parliament as a character on a soap opera, each one with their own back story and drama.”

This method gave me some hope but was ultimately unsuccessful. For one thing, the proroguing of Parliament bore zero resemblance to The Bold and The Beautiful, or my all-time favourite soap, Passions. But more importantly, Canadian government, even at its most engaging, lacked something soap operas have in excess: a diverse cast of characters. On a soap opera there is, to name a few, the formidable patriarch, the weird aunt, the young stud, the vengeful love child and the ghost of her aborted twin. In Canadian government though, there seemed to be an overwhelming supply of one character and one character only: the formidable patriarch — in other words, the greying white man.

There is no crime or shame in being a greying white man, or a white man of any age or persuasion. In fact, I would be delighted if the new Liberal government added to its official platform a nationwide moratorium on the intensely stupid and increasingly popular word “mansplain.” But an institution without diversity is, if not inferior, infinitely dull. Which is why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s historic decision to appoint a gender-balanced cabinet is brilliant and, judging by the rapturous social media reaction to his swearing-in ceremony this week, also widely popular.

Among Trudeau’s new gender-balanced 31-member cabinet, sworn in officially at Rideau Hall where thousands applauded outside, are Jody Wilson-Raybould, the first aboriginal woman to hold the post of justice minister, Chrystia Freeland, the first woman to be appointed trade minister since the 1980s, and NGO director Catherine McKenna, who will serve as minister of the environment and climate change. The televised ceremony began with two little Inuit girls throat singing and then immediately cracking up, a thoroughly adorable moment which in turn made the Governor General, David Johnston and Trudeau crack up, too. When a reporter asked Trudeau after the ceremony why gender parity in his cabinet is important he said, simply, “Because it’s 2015.”

In other words, representation and the civic engagement it generates is not mere window dressing to more “serious” business. It is serious business in and of itself, and the notion that calculated fairness will sully a meritocracy that probably never existed to begin with is foolish and unconvincing. Trudeau’s call for gender parity in cabinet has gifted Canadian government the diverse cast of characters it desperately needs and deserves. Mind you it is a cast nowhere as interesting as any seen on The Bold and the Beautiful or Passions, but that’s probably a good thing.

In the end, it’s hard to be a Grinch in Canada. Trudeau’s swearing-in was rife with good feeling, a contagious vibe no matter your political leanings. And yet, though the Liberal government has every reason to celebrate its achievement in gender parity and youth civic engagement, it must be in some ways, quite terrified. Expectations of this government are astronomically high — especially among millennials, who don’t cleave to political parties the way their parents did and will likely have no problem shedding any loyalty to Trudeau the moment his “hope and change” Obama moment subsides and real governance begins.

Shortly before Trudeau’s ceremony a spokesperson for the Liberal party reiterated on national television Trudeau’s “openness” and ability to engage people from all walks of life. Harper’s cold and insular government, full of crabby media-wary political operatives, didn’t pan out. Everybody chose “Sunny Ways.” Sunny Ways, Sunny Ways, Sunny Ways: it is the Marsha Brady of political slogans. And perhaps it’s time the Trudeau government considered retiring the phrase — even in light of its many wins. Because though things are looking up for Trudeau — and indeed, they really are — cloudier days full of uncomfortable compromise lie ahead.

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