The Heritage portfolio in Justin Trudeau's cabinet switched hands from Mélanie Joly to Pablo Rodríguez. Cabinet shuffles are normal in a parliamentary system. This cabinet shuffle anticipates next year's federal election.
While Joly is in her first term as a MP, Rodríguez (seen above being sworn in as Heritage Minister) was in Parliament from 2004-2011. Joly is now the Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie.
With a summer transition, we don't expect to hear much from Rodríguez before Parliament reconvenes in the fall.
We give great credit for Mélanie Joly's commitment to revamp the system. She took some unkind criticism for the Netflix deal, but the minister put together hard work and enthusiasm rarely seen by a minister in this portfolio.
This isn't to say that Minister Rodríguez can't improve on Joly's efforts. The Heritage portfolio requires a lot of work thanks to years of neglect during the Harper Government. Even under previous Liberal prime ministers, Heritage hasn't had much attention since the CanCon era in the 1970s. Canada’s Broadcasting Act hasn't been updated since 1991.
If Minister Pablo Rodríguez wants to catch up on the Heritage portfolio, we have a few articles we recommend for summertime reading.
Creative Canada sounds promising but so much is still unknown
Liberals want to revamp Canadian Content rules
Canada's cable TV reforms could deal blow to Canadian content
CRTC reducing requirements to carry Canadian content
What the 2015 Canadian federal election means to CBC and other arts funding
Helping CBC Part I: Show more Canadian content
Helping CBC Part II: Making money through cable channels
Helping CBC Part III: Filling programming holes
How Canadian should Canadian TV be?
Feel free to weigh in on the comments section as to what you would like to see from Minister Rodríguez on the Heritage portfolio.
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
CanadianCrossing.com television coverage
photo credit: Patrick Doyle/Canadian Press; Ministry of Canadian Heritage
Comments