FEATURE | Rechie Valdez First Filipina as a CANADA’s Federal Cabinet Minister
Rechie Valdez
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When Rechie Valdez’s family moved from Zambia to Canada, her mother couldn’t get her nursing credentials recognized. In July 2023, Rechie was sworn in as a federal Cabinet minister, and she was hailed as the first Filipina to hold that job.
It’s a long way from Kitwe, the mining city where her story started. The road there ran through a new country, a bank, a bakery and a seat in Parliament.
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BORN IN KITWE
Her father was an engineer and her mother was a nurse, both overseas Filipino workers in Zambia. Their daughter Rechie was born there in 1980, and as a little girl she dreamed of becoming an artist and a basketball player.
In 1989, the family moved to Canada, with her younger brother, and settled in Erin Mills, a suburb of Mississauga, Ontario. Her father found work quickly. Her mother had to go back to school while working.
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THE BANKER WHO BAKED
Rechie earned a computer science degree from the University of Windsor in 2003, then spent more than 15 years at BMO. She started on the customer-service phones and later moved into other roles.
Baking began on the side. A cake she made for her second child’s first birthday led to paying customers for macarons and wedding cakes.
In February 2020, she decided to leave the bank and bake full time. She said she had “built a strong enough customer base.”
She went on to compete on the Food Network’s The Big Bake, on a team called Bake to the Future. She produced and hosted a talk show, Fearlessly Creative, on Filipino TV.
She has also organized basketball tournaments that raised money for children’s charities.
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THE SEAT IN MISSISSAUGA
Then an opening appeared in politics. Gagan Sikand, the Liberal member of Parliament for Mississauga-Streetsville, had announced he would not run again, and the party chose Rechie as its candidate.
She won the seat on September 20, 2021, and became the first Filipina Canadian elected to Parliament.
As an MP, she pushed for foreign-trained workers to have pathways to permanent residency, especially caregivers. In her first speech in the House of Commons, in April 2022, she talked about Filipino immigrants, like her mother, who came to Canada “to build a better life for families.”
Later, in November 2022, she became chair of the Canada-Philippines Interparliamentary Group.
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FROM BACKBENCH TO CABINET
On July 26, 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s shuffle made her Minister of Small Business, the first minister dedicated to that job in four years. Rey Pagtakhan had served as a Filipino Canadian minister under Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, so she was the second Filipino Canadian to hold a ministerial job, and she was hailed as the first Filipina.
When Mark Carney became prime minister in March 2025, he made her chief government whip, the MP who helps keep the governing party’s votes organized. She held her seat in the April 2025 election with 51.5 percent of the vote, though her lead over the Conservative candidate shrank to about 4,000 votes.
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In May 2025, Carney named her Minister of Women and Gender Equality. She also serves as Secretary of State for Small Business and Tourism, so small business is still part of her work.
As of October 2026, she holds both jobs.
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Source: Canadian Encyclopedia (updated April 2026); Globe and Mail; Government of Canada ministers page; Prime Minister of Canada cabinet page; Wikipedia
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