Meet your new minister of health: Marjorie Michel
Prime Minister Mark Carney has chosen newly elected Member of Parliament Marjorie Michel (Papineau) as Canada’s next minister of health.
This is Michel’s first time holding a seat in the House of Commons, having won the Montreal constituency of Papineau with 53 per cent of the vote. Papineau was formerly represented by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The Canadian Health Coalition salutes PM @MarkJCarney and his new cabinet, especially the new Health Minister Marjorie Michel, with whom we look forward to working to protect and advance universal health care. #CdnPoli
— Cdn Health Coalition (@HealthCoalition) May 13, 2025
Minister Michel is no stranger to politics, despite being elected for the first time. The Montreal Gazette described her as a “seasoned Liberal strategist.”
“Her political career began in 2016 as a policy adviser to Jean-Yves Duclos, later serving as his chief of staff. In 2019, she became the first Black chief of staff in the Trudeau government, according to The Hill, staying on when Duclos became Treasury Board president before moving to the PMO. She went on to lead the Liberal Party’s Quebec operations in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections before joining Trudeau’s office in 2021 and later becoming deputy campaign director of the party,” wrote Gazette reporter Harry North.
The Liberal Party website does not mention any previous experience in public health care, but describes her as passionate about people: “A strong advocate of sustainable networking, she has been actively involved with the Réseau des Femmes d’Affaires du Québec since 2005, making economic inclusion her primary focus.”
Michel is the daughter of former Haitian Prime Minister Smarck Michel, and holds a master’s degree in social work, and organizational psychology from UCL (Belgium).
Michel’s appointment was part of Mark Carney’s 28-member Cabinet announced this week. While a majority of Carney’s ministers had been part of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal caucus, 13 of them are first-time MPs, including Marjorie Michel.
