Longtime Liberal cabinet minister Carolyn Bennett to become envoy to Denmark: source

OTTAWA — Longtime Liberal member of Parliament and former cabinet minister Carolyn Bennett is set to become the next ambassador to Denmark.

A senior government source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters not yet public, said the announcement is expected this week.

Bennett, who was dropped from cabinet last summer after announcing she wouldn’t seek re-election, hasn’t yet officially stepped down as the MP for Toronto-St. Paul’s. 

She has been the Liberal MP for the riding since 1997, but announced she would be resigning last month and gave her farewell speech in the House of Commons on Dec. 12.

The diplomatic appointment can proceed as soon as Bennett’s departure becomes official, the source said.

Neither Bennett nor her office responded to a request for comment Tuesday.

Canada’s current ambassador in Copenhagen is Denis Robert, who has been in the role since 2021.

Bennett was most recently the mental health and addictions minister, a job she held for nearly two years. Before that she spent almost six years as the minister of Crown-Indigenous relations.

She also served as a minister in the Liberal government of Paul Martin, as Canada’s first minister for public health.

Before entering politics, Bennett was a family doctor in Toronto.

Her appointment is at least the fourth time Trudeau has named a former cabinet minister to a diplomatic post.

Ralph Goodale, who spent more than a decade in cabinet under three prime ministers, including as Trudeau’s public safety minister, is currently Canada’s high commissioner in the United Kingdom. Stéphane Dion, the former Liberal leader who also served multiple roles in cabinet including as foreign affairs minister under Trudeau, is now the ambassador in France. He was previously Canada’s ambassador to Germany.

John McCallum stepped down as Trudeau’s immigration minister when he was named the ambassador to China in 2017, a position he held for almost two years.

Trudeau is not the first prime minister to make political appointments to ambassadorships.

Former prime minister Stephen Harper appointed Lawrence Cannon as the ambassador to France in 2012, about a year after Cannon was defeated as an MP, losing his cabinet job as the minister of foreign affairs.

Harper also received criticism for naming the head of his RCMP security detail to be the ambassador in Jordan.

Sometimes the political appointments cross party lines. 

In 2018 Trudeau appointed former NDP MP Joe Comartin as Canada’s consul general in Detroit. In 1996, former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien named former Progressive Conservative prime minister Kim Campbell to the consul general role in Los Angeles.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2024.

Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press