OTTAWA — On the morning that Marjorie Michel was to be sworn in to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet, she wasn’t entirely certain what her role would be.
asserted
role → swear → cabinet
Corralled in a room with other front-benchers before walking down the gently winding drive to Rideau Hall, the longtime Liberal operative was approached by a staffer who asked if she was pleased with her new position.
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she → corral → position
In truth, she had no idea.
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she → have → idea
Yes, the prime minister had called her to offer the health portfolio.
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minister → call → portfolio
But, as Michel recalls it, he also asked her to explore one particular issue: looking into a campaign pledge about starting a funding program for in vitro fertilization.
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he → recall → fertilization
What starts in Alberta doesn’t stay
Alberta’s Bill 11 is a direct assault on the Canada Health Act, but the greater danger is federal complacency.
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danger → start → Act
What starts in Alberta doesn’t stay
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starts → start → Alberta
There was speculation at the time that Carney would be appointing secretaries of state to oversee more specific files.
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Carney → be → files
That, combined with Michel’s astonishment at receiving the coveted call, led to some confusion in the mind of the freshly elected MP.
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That → combine → MP
Was she going to become the next federal health minister?
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she → go → ?
Or would she be the secretary of state tasked with championing the creation of embryos in laboratory dishes?
“You don’t ask the prime minister questions,” Michel said in her Montreal constituency office in August, reliving the 2025 incident with some amusement.
“He was very clear, but it was also me.
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it → task → amusement
A lot of people are expecting that call, but I was not.”
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I → expect → call
It was hardly the first time the 63-year-old found herself somewhere she hadn’t thought she’d be.
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she → find → herself
The daughter of a Haitian prime minister, she was more interested in using her degree in social and organizational psychology than in actively entering Canada’s political arena.
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she → use → arena
As a volunteer for the Quebec and federal Liberals, she hesitated about accepting an offer to work for the provincial party.
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she → hesitate → party
And as deputy chief of staff to Justin Trudeau — and, for one week, to Carney — she was bewildered when both men wanted her to succeed Trudeau as the member of Parliament for Papineau.
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her → bewilder → Papineau
“I never felt the need to run,” Michel said.
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Michel → feel → need
“If you are asking me what I preferred, it was simpler to be a staffer.”
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it → ask → what
Shortly after winning the seat, so convinced was Michel that she would not receive a cabinet post that her sister had to persuade her to take her phone off silent mode on the day Carney made the rounds.
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Carney → win → rounds
She was, in the end, sworn in as Canada’s health minister.
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She → swear → minister
Alberta’s controversial Bill 11 allows some physicians to provide publicly covered care while offering some privately paid services.
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physicians → allow → services
Alberta’s controversial Bill 11 allows some physicians to provide publicly covered care while offering some privately paid services.
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physicians → allow → services
Now, she sits at a cabinet table chaired by a prime minister who has both preserved and undone the legacy of the predecessor she faithfully served.
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she → sit → predecessor
“If you look at the history of the Liberal party, depending on who is the leader, you will go to the centre, a little bit right, left.
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you → look → centre
That’s the reality,” Michel said.
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Michel → ’ → ?
Trudeau, she said, was the right leader for his time; energized by inclusivity and the social safety net, he was Canada’s answer to Obama-era progressivism across the border.
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he → say → border
But by September 2024, she knew his time was up.
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time → know → September
The Liberals lost a byelection in a Montreal stronghold, and days later, then-transport minister Pablo Rodriguez left the party to enter provincial politics.
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Rodriguez → lose → politics
“Oh my God,” Michel said, dropping her head into her hands as she recalled the turbulent time.
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she → say → time
“I think for me that was the moment that I knew we couldn’t do anything more.”
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we → think → anything
In her view, Trudeau held on for the remainder of the year because he “didn’t want to leave the country in hands … he couldn’t accept.”
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he → hold → hands
“Prime Minister Carney is an economist, with a vision more centred than Prime Minister Trudeau,” Michel said.
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Michel → say → Trudeau
“Look at what is happening everywhere.
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what → look → ?
It’s a different map.”
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It → ’ → ?
She hears a lot about Carney in places like Papineau, the central Montreal riding that is one of the smallest yet most culturally diverse pockets of the country.
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that → hear → country
She also hears about him in Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, the Quebec riding the Liberals seized from the Conservatives in a byelection this week.
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Liberals → hear → byelection
“When you talk to even regular citizens, they say, ‘I feel safe.’
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I → talk → citizens
People feel like (Carney) is protecting them,” she said.
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she → feel → them
Michel, a relentless organizer in Quebec, told the Star two weeks before the byelection that she thought her party would win.
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party → tell → byelection
She spent her free time in the riding, while the party’s Quebec MPs wrangled their families into taking summer vacations there to boost their local presence.
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MPs → spend → presence
…and 34 more, not listed.
The Aporia
