Manitoba MP Shelly Glover, who represents the Winnipeg riding of St. Boniface, has been named Canada’s new Minister of Heritage and Official Languages as part of a federal cabinet shuffle. BC MP James Moore, who had been Heritage Minister since 2008, has been moved to the Minister of Industry post, where among other items he will be responsible for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
In a statement on Stephen Harper’s YouTube channel, the rookie cabinet minister Glover said, “I want to thank the prime minister for believing in me and giving me this chance to help my community and my country. I think back to my humble beginnings as a Métis girl in the city of Winnipeg and I am just so proud.”
For his part, outgoing minister Moore tweeted, “A sincere thank you to the remarkable team across Canada at Canadian Heritage who have worked so well with me over the past 5 years.”
Glover’s website indicates that prior to being elected in 2008, she spent 19 years as a member of the Winnipeg Police Service. It also says that she participated in the first French immersion program west of Ontario and was “the first female and bilingual spokesperson” appointed by her police department. She has previously been parliamentary secretary for official languages, Indian affairs and Northern affairs, and the minister of finance.
Glover’s riding is just across the Red River from the site of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which has been beset by delays, cost overruns, and staffing issues. The museum, billed as the first national museum located outside of the Ottawa/Gatineau region, was originally planned to open to the public in 2012; that has been pushed back to 2014. The preliminary 2008 budget was in the $270-million range, and it has since grown to more than $350 million. And in November, the CBC reported that 38 staff had quit or been fired since the project began.
Earlier this year, Glover had been in a dispute with Elections Canada about her 2011 campaign expenses. The Canadian Press, among others, reported that she backed down from the dispute in June by “filing financial documents demanded by the agency.”
