Anita Anand
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Anita Indira Anand (born 1967) is a Canadian politician, lawyer and former academic who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2025. A member of the Liberal Party, Anand was elected to the House of Commons in 2019 and is the Member of Parliament for Oakville East. A Cabinet Minister since 2019, she has held most of the senior portfolios in government and has been regarded as a fixer by political observers. Anand was elected as the MP for Oakville in the October 2019 election and was appointed to the Cabinet in November. In the 29th Canadian Ministry, chaired by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Anand was first the minister of public services and procurement, where she was responsible for the federal government's procurement of vaccines and personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, she became the minister of national defence and played a key role in Canadian efforts to provide military aid to Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Anand was the president of the Treasury Board from 2023 to 2024 and the minister of transport and internal trade from 2024 to 2025. In 2021, Anand was named Canada's "most valuable politician" by The Hill Times, and in 2022, Maclean's described her as the Trudeau government's "all-round fixer". In the 30th Canadian Ministry, chaired by Prime Minister Mark Carney, Anand was appointed as the minister of innovation, science and industry. She held the role for two months prior to her appointment as the minister of foreign affairs following the 2025 federal election. Anand is the first Hindu woman to be elected to Parliament and the first Hindu member of Cabinet in Canada. She is only the second woman, after former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, to be minister of national defence and the first visible minority to be minister of foreign affairs.