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Jews Elected to Canadian Cabinet

March 4, 1980
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Premier Pierre Elliott Trudeau named two Jews to his 32-member Cabinet today. They are Herbert Gray, 48, of Windsor, Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce, and Robert Kaplan, also 48, of Toronto, as Solicitor General. The Cabinet was sworn in this afternoon bringing the Liberal Party bock to power after nine months of Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservative government.

Kaplan is a newcomer to the Cabinet while Gray was Minister of Revenue under Trudeau from 1972-76. When he was named in 1972, he was the first Jew to be a Cabinet member in Canada.

Gray and Kaplan were among four Jews re-elected in the Feb. 18 election. The others were David Berger of Quebec, who, like the two-Ministers, is a member of the Liberal Party, and David Orlikow, of Winnipeg, Manitobc, a member of the New Democratic Party.

The new Minister of State for External Affairs is Marc Mac Guigan, an Ontario MP who is a newcomer to the Cabinet and who is not known to have taken any previous stands on foreign affairs.

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