Meet Justin Trudeau’s successor and the liberal “godmother”

MONTREAL – Marjorie Michel never wanted to run for office. She didn’t want to come out of the shadows, she said.

To most Canadians, she’s a complete unknown. In Montreal, though, she just replaced Justin Trudeau as the MP for Papineau . And in Ottawa, she was recently appointed as minister of health. Yet since the April 28 election, she has remained almost invisible, trying to acclimate to a life she knows well, but never imagined for herself.

Behind the scenes, Michel is praised for being “direct,” serious, organized, calm, pragmatic and “blunt.” And in Montreal’s Haitian community and in Quebec’s Liberal circles, she’s known as a heavyweight, and called a “pioneer.” Several people spoken to for this story referred to her as the “godmother” of the Liberal Party in Quebec.

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