OTTAWA—Youth will be served Wednesday.

So will diversity and change, in both style and substance.

And, for those who have turned this into a debating point in the past few days, rest assured. Merit will also be served.

The cabinet unveiled Wednesday will be one of the deepest in talent in modern history.

When Justin Trudeau marches his new cabinet down the path to the Governor General’s residence — a stroll that conjures images of the U.S. presidential inauguration down Pennsylvania Avenue — there will be qualified men who will not be part of the parade in a smaller, gender-equal cabinet.

But, here’s some news — there will be qualified women who will be unable to make the grade as well.

As it is, the first Trudeau cabinet is likely to include a former general, an author and journalist, a city councillor who was a wrongly accused political prisoner in his native India, a doctor who spent years training physicians in underdeveloped Africa, an engineer and former astronaut, a former mayor and a specialist in aboriginal business and leadership, and an Oxford law graduate named as Quebec’s “up and coming” woman of the year seven years ago.

There are likely to be three former ministers, at least two aboriginals, a successful businessman, a former negotiator for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor and a quadriplegic who overcame a tragic drive-by shooting to become an Alberta cabinet minister.

This presupposes that those flanking Trudeau Wednesday morning include Andrew Leslie, Chrystia Freeland, Amarjeet Sohi, Jane Philpott, Marc Garneau, Pam Goldsmith-Jones, Mélanie Joly, Scott Brison, Ralph Goodale, Stéphane Dion, Jody Wilson-Raybould, Hunter Tootoo, Bill Morneau, Catherine McKenna and Kent Hehr.

There is no guarantee for any of them, but, on balance, you’ll earn a few bucks if you put some money on this group.

But that leaves a number of women fighting for spots that they would be qualified for on simple merit, not geography, linguistic skills, longevity in the party or friendship with the leader.

Some left on the outside looking in will get to play key roles in this government or will be able to climb into cabinet in the future.

But no one can logically argue that finding a maximum of 15 qualified women out of 50 elected Liberal MPs is a challenge for Trudeau and his team. Quite the contrary.

There is a long list of women who fit comfortably into a cabinet meritocracy, and some will make the cut. Other won’t.

Here’s but a partial list.

Carolyn Bennett, a doctor, is a former junior minister in the Paul Martin government.

South African-born Joyce Murray is a former British Columbia environment minister, founder of a successful reforestation company in her home province and a federal leadership candidate.

Kirsty Duncan, from Etobicoke North, is a medical geographer who served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the 2007 Nobel Prize.

On the East Coast, Yvonne Jones is young (47), has served in the Newfoundland and Labrador cabinet, was the provincial Liberal leader, and took out Conservative cabinet minister Peter Penashue in a 2013 byelection.

Judy Foote served 11 years and held four portfolios in the Newfoundland cabinet. Both women are tough, as well, both having fought breast cancer.

In Manitoba, MaryAnn Mihychuk is a geoscientist who held two portfolios in the NDP government of Gary Doer and was a trailblazer in the mining industry.

Newly elected Whitby MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes reclaimed Jim Flaherty’s old seat. She was born in Grenada, was a volunteer at the Congress of Black Women of Canada, on the Ethics Board and Governing Council of the University of Toronto and entrepreneur of the year.

Maryam Monsef from Peterborough-Kawartha fled with her family from the Taliban in Afghanistan, is the first Afghan-born MP in Canadian history and co-founded a campaign that has raised over $150,000 for women and girls in Afghanistan. Anita Vandenbeld from the Ottawa-area has served in 20 countries for the United Nations development program and was a Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal, her neighbour, Karen McCrimmon, is the first woman to command a Canadian Air Forces flying squadron, and Carla Qualtrough of Delta, B.C., is the former legal counsel for both the British Columbia and Canadian Human Rights Commissions — and, oh yeah, she was born visually impaired and won three medal at the Paralympics.

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They’re all not going to make it.

Trudeau may be breaking new ground by promising gender parity, but a deep dive into the qualifications and resumes of the women who will accompany him down the laneway at Rideau Hall will show this might have been the easiest promise he will ever keep.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1

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