YouSaid · the spoken record

Justin Trudeau

lines on the record: 57
first: 2018-02-08
most recent: 2018-02-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“My kids, I'm in politics not in spite of the fact that I have kids. I'm in politics because I have kids. And yes, I'm here tonight, so I'm not at home with them back in Ottawa. And that cost on me and on them for not having their dad as home as often as they'd like and having to share him with the country in many ways has to come with an understanding for me that what I am doing is going to lead to them and their generation having a better life and a better future. And if ever the time came where I didn't think the cost was worth it, that I wasn't creating enough of a better world to justify all the time I don't get to spend with them at recitals and soccer games, then I might request what I'm doing.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's an emphasis of Canadian values, the way Canadians expect it, but it's also a recognition, and people have interpreted it in a number of different ways, but it's about refugees. If you're fleeing terror, persecution, war, that makes you a refugee. It's not just an economic migrant looking for better opportunities from a poor country, for example. It's someone who literally has no country or no protections or no state to protect them. They're not a citizen of anywhere anymore. That's what refugees are, and that's where, as Canada is, a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, we have an obligation and we have an understanding that welcoming in people who are refugees who have absolutely nothing to fall back on is an important part of our strength.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, of course there's always a little bit. I mean, you get stories of backlashes and individual problems. But by and large, Canadians are very... Cognizant of the potential and the contribution and the rightness of welcoming people who are fleeing the most difficult things imaginable and try to help out. And there are going to be 60 million displaced persons around the world in the coming years, so no country can accept them all. But if everyone does a little bit more, you make a significant dent in the problem and you also look at ways of solving the challenges that led to those migrations.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Some of them are doing great, some of them are finding it really tough. One of the things we have that's great around refugees is a private sponsorship system where church groups, community groups, individual families can sponsor a family, help pay for the services they're going to need in that first year, and mostly provide them support and a network that is going to help them with their integration. And that connection means the privately sponsored refugees tend to do better, quicker than the government-sponsored ones who are usually the most vulnerable of the vulnerable who we bring over. So there's a mix of success paths, but Canadians are rightly very proud of it. And it's not something this government.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, for us, that system is part of what has ensured that while part of the world or much of the world is turning away from immigration, Canadians, whether you're anywhere on the political spectrum, mainstream political spectrum in Canada, there is no anti-immigration party that has a single seat in our parliament, for example. We have a broad consensus that immigration has been good for us. And the most important responsibility I have as Prime Minister towards Canadians and immigration is to protect that positive view of immigration. Element of what Canada is doing well”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think what we've done as a country, quite frankly, the story of North America's success is the story of people coming here from all around the world and building better lives for themselves. A number of decades ago we shifted away from judging immigrants on country of origin instead looked at the skills they brought and looked at their level of education, looked at a points-based system. Well, if you could speak English or French, you'd have more advantages and that allowed us to get away from a ethnic or geographically based process.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The flip side of that is we're actually going to get our oil resources to new markets across the Pacific. We'll do it safely and securely through a pipeline, which is better than doing it by rail or by trucks. And the folks on the right are upset there's a national price on carbon. The folks on the left are upset we approved a single pipeline. Actually, we approved more than one pipeline, but we're doing that because there's a balance. And on top of that, we're putting in world-class oceans protection to make sure that the BC coast is safe. So these things all fit together. And anyone can find issue with one of those decisions. And what I am counting on and hoping on, and I think reasonably confident about because I know Canadians and I know we're reasonable people, people will get the big picture we're going at. And that faith in Canadians is one that I am confident.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One of them we approved, the Kinder Morgan TMX pipeline. The people who wanted all pipelines were furious at us for refusing the Northern Gateway. And the people who wanted no pipelines were furious at us not for turning down the Northern Gateway, but for approving the TMX pipeline. So we made a decision not just looking for a Goldilocks solution, but we actually know that For the first time in Canada's history, we were able to put together a concrete plan, not just targets, not just targets to reach our climate emission reductions, but a plan to reach those. And that plan involved different things. It involved a national price on carbon pollution. National standards in every region of the country that will actually be met and reduce our carbon emissions.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, first of all, in government, you're going to have to make choices that some people are going to disagree with. And what people look at is what choices have you made and also what is the underlying thinking? What are the values that drove those decisions? We ran on a platform that said, you know what, those who are left and to our right both say that you have to choose. It's either the environment or the economy. You can't do them both together. But I know, and most people know, that the only way to build the strong economy of the future is to make sure we're protecting the environment at the same time. So that's a nice thing to say, and it's a fundamental principle we live by. But when you actually get around to making those decisions, there were a number of pipelines, pipeline proposals we looked at. A couple of them we turned down, or one of them we turned down, the Northern Gateway.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely, we have very clear rules around who and what we can sell either arms or potential military vehicles like helicopters and controls on what they intend to be used for and checks on how they are used. And we're going to make sure before this deal or any other deal goes through that we are abiding by the rules and the expectations that aren't just sort of values but that are actual rules that Canadian governments have to follow when we're looking at deals like this whether it's selling equipment to foreign countries from arms to whatever or on investments by different countries in Canada to make sure that they fit within the security framework that we want, that there's not national security interests and that they're in a net benefit. Position for Canadian citizens for workers.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Going to back off on saying, look, we believe that a free, informed populace is essential through a free, independent media. These are essential pillars of success and freedom in society, and we're not going to flinch too much on that. We're going to respect that you have a different view on it, but we're going to find ways where we can stand true to our values and create benefits for our country and perhaps some benefits for your citizens that will see that there are other ways of doing things that might be better down the road.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's always a balance. We know that it's easy to, you know, one path is to sort of sit back and say, I'm not going to engage with anyone who doesn't share our values and our progressive ideals. And maybe larger economies can get away with that. But Canada, as a country, doesn't really get a lot of leverage if we say, well, we're not going to talk to you until you change your system is not our path for actually bringing about improvements and changes that will meaningfully improve outcomes for people. So we feel that thinking about how we engage in a responsible way, that yes, looks for economic opportunities for our citizens. I mean, we're very interested in some of the opportunities for our small businesses, for agricultural producers to sell into the growing Chinese middle class market, but we're not”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To make sure that our auto workers are going to do better in the long term under the CPTPP. So we've looked at ways of improving the outcomes in a way that, yes, there are people in Canada who have concerns about a trade deal with Asia and what that's going to have as an impact on their industries, on their jobs. But we also know that the growing economies of Asia are a pivot we have to make as a world to engage with and I think a trade deal that includes countries like Japan, Australia, New Zealand and others is a good thing for Canada and that's why we moved forward and why we're still hopeful that in the coming years the US will choose to join.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I'm not going to opine on the U.S. decisions on it, but I've made no bones about the fact that I think trade is and will remain a motor for growth. The issue is not trade, no trade. The issue is what kind of trade and how do we make sure people are benefiting from trades. And what we did in changes to the now comprehensive and progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership involved things like protection on intellectual property rights, protection around some of our cultural industries because our cultural industries, particularly in Quebec, where languages are really important identifier and driver of identity, we're worried about the impact that it could have on those sorts of things. We've gotten certain improvements to the approach on”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For improved labor standards around NAFTA is not something that will massively impact the Canada-US dynamic as we have very similar labor standards and very similar approaches in very similar economies. But if we can raise labor standards in Mexico, then there is less of an incentive to move companies there for the extreme low wages and at the same time the companies that are there with higher wages will create a consumer base that will do a better job of actually buying products from Canada and the United States and will create more economic growth there. So these are all problems that are not intractable. They are problems that require us to sit down and figure out the best way forward for our citizens. And that's very much what we're engaged in.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The problem is the disruption on millions of American jobs, of American families, when suddenly the supply chains that they're part of that exist between Canada and the US and in some cases Mexico get more difficult, get more uncertain, thickening at the border means in the short term, even if theoretically there is a better opportunity for a long-term deal. In the short term, that's a lot of families out of work suffering in a way that I think would be far worse politically. And the challenge we have is not trade deal versus no trade deal. It's how do we make sure that we're benefiting citizens and workers who don't feel like they've been properly supported or cared for over the past years. And the right trade deal and proper updating and modernization and improvement to take a concrete example, the way we're pushing”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thoughtfully, constructively at the negotiating table because we know there is a good deal to be had, and I'm not going to negotiate it in public here, but we know we can work towards a deal. But we also know that we will not be pushed into accepting any old deal, and no deal might very well be better for Canada than a bad deal. And being firm on that is, I think, what Canadians expect of that.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think we've been clear that there's a number of things that we have deep concerns about. One of the benefits of NAFTA is the stability that it provides in terms of investments and building supply chains that crisscross the border. I mean, there are situations in which an auto part might crisscross the border six times before making it into a completed vehicle. And that's good for our economy. It's good for your economy. It just makes a lot of sense. Anything that provides a level of uncertainty like a sunset clause, for example, to businesses is something that we have grave reservations about. But what I've said is, and I think the language of walking away has been taken as mirroring some of the things that the president has said, we have a different approach on that. It is that we will continue to engage.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When you sneeze, we catch a cold. I mean, we're so interlinked that absolutely we want to make sure that it's a good deal for the United States because that's part of making a good deal for Canada. And that's what we're focused on.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Concerned about the future of NAFTA because the president has said that he's not sure that it's a good thing. So when Canadians see me engaging constructively, collaboratively but firmly at the negotiating table on NAFTA saying, look, we know there are ways to modernize and improve NAFTA in a way that will create a win-win-win when we include Mexico. There is a path absolutely for that. We are not going to take a win loss just for the sake of getting a deal. And I've been very, very clear we're going to expect a good deal, a fair deal, because quite frankly, there is no country in the world that has a greater vested interest in the United States being successful than Canada. Because no matter how good we're doing in Canada, if your economy faces troubles, we get, you know,”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not going to wonder about things, but Canadians know, well, no, Canadians know how important a good relationship with the United States is. We know how much NAFTA has benefited Canada, but we also are very knowledgeable about how NAFTA has benefited the United States. We've got about 9 million jobs directly linked to trade with Canada across the United States. It's good for Canada. It's good for the United States. And we are... Legitimately”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because that is my job, that dictates everything I do. So Canadians expect me to have a constructive relationship with the United States, a constructive relationship with the president, whoever that president is, and that's exactly what I do. At the same time, Canadians also expect me to stand up for Canadian values, to stand up for Canadian interests, and that's exactly what I intend to do. And standing up for Canadian values and having a constructive relationship with the president doesn't have to be a direct contradiction because there are lots of things on which we can find common ground. He got elected on a promise to make America work for people who had been left out, which is not entirely dissimilar from the commitment that I made to try and help the middle class in Canada.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The secret to getting along is always to find common ground. And at the center of the relationship between the Canadian Prime Minister and the American president is the fact that our countries and our peoples get along so well and are so closely intertwined that the relationship is much bigger and much deeper than the ideologies or perspectives of whoever happens to be Prime Minister of Canada and whoever is occupying the White House. So starting with that as a beginning point that the relationship is bigger than either of the two of us is grounding and useful. And the second piece of it for me is that Canadians elected me to do a job to make sure that they have a better future, a brighter future, that their kids have Opportunities and that their country reflects their values and their priorities in the way we go.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, international relations, I learned this from my dad, who is one of the tangible things I learned about politics, is often about interpersonal relations and how I engage with the different leaders really very much depends on how How best to engage with them and what the particular situation is. So, yes, I deal differently with Donald Trump than I would with Emmanuel Macron or Theresa May or with Barack Obama because...”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, she had a tough run of it dealing with things that I can't even imagine. Regularly when I was talking about politics with Sophie, who's very much a partner to me in this, and my mom sort of said, oh, you guys need to watch out. I'm like, mom, we're in our 30s. You were in your early 20s and all this. I mean, we're a little further along in being able to deal with it, but the strength that my mom had and her capacity to make it through something and come out as an amazing, wonderful grandmother of eight kids now and speaking out and being an activism, a mental health issues, and on aging and all these wonderful things. I just can't stop saying how proud I am to be my mother's son.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Taught me a lot about the strength required in families and in society to support people struggling with mental illness and now when someone says oh your mother's son I say thank you thank you very much that's the nicest thing you could ever say and the courage that she has in pushing forward the tough conversations around destigmatizing about looking for better structural help for people who are vulnerable as deeply informed my own approach in government and we're investing massively in mental health support and I think we are making a change but yes there's a long way to go”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We still have a long way to go. And it happens when one of the criticisms tossed at me when I was starting in politics was, well, you know, he's not much of his father's son. He's much more like his mother. And that was the attack. And my mom struggled with mental illness all her life. She suffers from bipolarity. It wasn't until I was in my mid-20s when I was looking at an old picture of her with short hair and she was really skinny. She says, oh, yeah, I was really fighting depression at that moment. And that was the first time I'd ever heard her refer to some of the real challenges she'd had through my childhood as being mental illness. And it was sort of like a light bulb went off for me. And dealing with my mom and supporting her through some very difficult times in her life, whether it was the death of my little brother or others”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think tools can be used for bad or for good. I mean, certainly whether it was Barack Obama's election or our election, we used social media effectively as a way of bringing people together. One of my MPs was actually my special advisor on LGBT issues just actually said, you know, I was looking at any time someone posts something about LGBT or something, there are bots that insulate little troll bots that come out and make negative comments. He says, well, why aren't there any positive troll bots? And he talked to some of the social media companies. He said, well, nobody wants to pay for that positive reinforcement. Lots of people are paying for those negative reinforcements. He says, well, let's... We need to pay a class of bots. Well, let's pay. And they've actually gone out and created a positive reinforcing mechanism whenever there's an LGBT remark.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Respond to knee-jerk populism and have that faith to carry it through and genuinely listen to their fears and carry them with you in a way that isn't, oh, well, I went to a good school, so I can tell you what the solution is. No, let me hear from you what you think the solution is.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Politicians can make choices around what to do with. Once you see that's there, do you amplify that anxiety and try to use it for political gain, or do you try and allay those fears with tangible solutions that are going to bring people together? Obviously, the latter is much harder. It's harder when people are anxious to soothe that anxiety and fix the problems than it would be to say, yeah, you're right, you should be mad, and let's go get them or whatever. But I think dealing with citizens as informed, intelligent, rational actors who do understand the need for figuring out a tough path forward, do understand the hard work that goes into building a better future, is what liberal democracies must cling to to trust their citizens a little more, to treat them like intelligent actors and not just people who”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, listening to people, understanding that those fears are real, that sense of lack of opportunity for ordinary people is tangible in a whole bunch of different ways, whether it's the failure of access to education or the stratification of society in various ways, the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots and the have yachts. We have a real anxiety that's out there that”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Canadians have always seen a role for ourselves as positive active players on the world stage, whether it was in the creation of UN peacekeeping, whether it was stepping up in the trenches of World War I or the beaches of World War II. We have a level of international action and engagement that has always been there and a level of pride in the positive impacts we've had on the world. We're not the biggest country around. We can't throw our weight around, but we have developed a well-earned reputation for being there to help and having a positive impact. And there is always ebbs and flows in the different approaches that different countries have around the world.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Take beating at some of them. Yes, taking a beating from people who are displeased, but also having an opportunity to connect directly and listen directly to ordinary citizens who want to come out and try and see why their leader made this decision or that decision how they're going to deal with this particular situation. That maintaining of a real connection with people is, I think, the most important thing for politicians. the hardest thing to have because we are insulated by motorcades and layers of experts and scientists and top advisors who are really, really smart about a lot of things but can distance you from the experiences of ordinary Canadians and getting that balance right has been something that I've continued to work on really really hard and I think I'm doing okay in terms of staying connected to Canadians”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think obviously I regret that choice I made to go bring my family on a vacation to someone who I considered and still consider to be a longtime family friend. But it's normal that our expectations and the frame that our institutions and our citizens put on the bar that should be higher for who's a friend of the prime minister is acceptable. So yes, I take it as something that I deeply regret and need to learn from. But at the same time, the central focus of everything I've been doing over the past two years has been to try and stay connected to Canadians, whether it's going out on open town halls as I do every year at the beginning of the year.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Me and had confidence in me. And I think on that level we are remaining consistent with the values and the approach. To be fair, the difference between the American system and the Canadian system where I have both executive and the legislative lined up means I don't have parliament.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think obviously when people first elect you, they have real hopes on this issue, that issue. And what underlies the whole thing is, is this person going to do right for me and the values that I have in the approach that they're saying? Are they going to do the kinds of things they said they would do when they were asking for my vote? And yes, you can get decisions that are disappointing on this or that because governing is messy and it's about difficult choices that citizens don't want to have to make sometimes. We have to make those tough choices and that's why we get elected for it. And what I'm focused on is not so much is every individual decision, the one that people absolutely thought I was going to do. But am I staying true to the reasons people chose?”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Get involved with an NGO will actually go out and protest and prevent this park from being turned into a parking lot or whatever. There's a sense of I have. Different ways of getting involved to shape the world, why would I get involved in politics if it's a old school structure that's going to disempower me, use me for my envelope sticking skills and not actually listen to me? So one of the things that I realized was the reverse was also true, that if we actually turned around and empowered and listened to young people, we could create something that not only would be new, but that would itself be interesting to young people who were looking for tangible ways of making a difference.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm not the easy solution you're looking for. I will help the next leader by working really, really hard on the ground and rebuilding. And then I sort of looked around and realized, actually, if we want to do the work of rebuilding and working hard, I actually have that perspective and that capacity better than the other people around who might do it. So I should be leader, not because of the past, but because of what I brought as a present. And I realized that I could bring people along with that.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I resisted when we'd gone through a couple of different leaders that didn't end up working out. People started to turn to me and say, oh, no, you should really run. And maybe that'll work because nothing else seems to have worked. And I really resist that. I said, no, no, no. The next leader has to understand how to work really, really hard. You can't just, you'll go for the celebrity face and think that's going to solve the problem. I'm not doing, but anyway, that's what...”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whether it was as a teacher, but it was something that I chose to do, to be connected with young people because of my background in education, because of a youthful outlook, I guess. But for me, the conversations I had with young people that weren't hooked to structures of the path, the Liberal Party had been the New York Yankees of political parties, the winningest party in Canadian history that had governed for 75 of the last hundred years or something like that, and it had grown a little bit calcified, a little bit complacent, a little bit struck in its ways. And these young people I talked to didn't so much care about previous generations or the way things used to be were very much, well, what kinds of structures or what kind of approach is going to matter today? And I thought that willingness to draw on the past but create a new future was essential to how you create a political”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm the eldest of an extended family that ended up having six kids in it with half-brothers and half-sisters. I was always the eldest of our group of friends. My brother's friends. So I had a natural. Capacity to sort of draw and direct and gather people around. And that was something that sort of helped me, I guess, evolve into the person that I am.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For and that idea that not everyday matters, that's trite to say, but every year are you doing what you are meant to be doing? Are you living your full life this year because who knows if there'll be a next year was a reminder for me to really focus on what I could be doing right now to make my life more meaningful or what I can contribute to the world. And that challenge, that reminder of the limited time we have was extremely powerful.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was it was a moment of almost loss of faith for my father he couldn't understand how God would have taken away his youngest son when he was at the end of his life and Mishi was at the beginning of his. For me it was a moment to find faith to I sort of reconnected with my Catholicism at that point and found myself obviously trying to make sense of a universe in which my younger brother, who was so incredibly vibrant could be taken from us in an avalanche accident. But at the same time it taught me a lesson about doing what matters. I mean he was only twenty three but he had found his way. He was living in the mountains as a ski guy and he was fulfilled in a way that I was still searching for and seeking for.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For me, it was an opportunity to not just tell people how great my dad was as a dad. But to show them as well, to say, okay, look at the kind of dad he was who could raise sons who could do this for their father. And almost instantly there was a huge pull to get me into politics. And I said, no, no, no, no, no. That's not going to happen. And I stepped away and went back to my own life as a teacher and went back to school. And it was really important for me to not look at this as Hollywood story that would instantly be these next steps. I said, no, no, no, no. Nobody's going to push me into writing a story that I'm not ready to embark upon. And I still knew I had lots of growing, lots of learning, lots of learning from Canadians.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I grew up first in politics being surrounded by people from every corner of the country, visited every corner of the country before I turned ten, basically. And throughout my teenage years and into my twenties, as I was backpacking across the country or living in different corners of the country, whenever I struck up a conversation with someone, I hear different stories or get a different perspective. And when came the point where they realized what my last name was and who my father was, suddenly the conversation turned to our country and our future.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He did, and that's certainly something that I sort of pointed to for myself as one of those different points. I'm not going to do it the same way as my father did. So it'll be more difficult. I didn't worry too much about what other people, what other people thought, but it won't be too difficult for me to distance what I'm doing from the echoes or the desire to fulfill my father's destiny. But the one thing that actually makes me fundamentally different from my father, well, there's lots of things, but one of the things in regards to politics is the childhood I had, where he was very much an A student focused on school and his own path in a very sort of solitary way.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The advantage side of it was people knew my father's values and it sort of seen me grow up from afar and knew that I had or felt a sense of familiarity or even connection to me having seen me grow up and being aware of me all my life. But for me to be able to say from the beginning, look, you know my values. I have very strong values that I inherited from both my parents. But the way those values are articulated into policy or solutions for now is totally different, and I'm going to do it my way and in a way that is genuine to me, which is different from my father in the way I got into politics was very much more grounded in people, in community work, in being a local member of parliament.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, that was certainly something I was aware of as a potential challenge, but it didn't really play out that way to any degree. I mean, perhaps my father skipped a generation when he had me in that he was 51 when I was born, so he was the same age as most of my friends' grandparents. And that meant that the time from him leaving politics to me entering politics was sufficiently large that there wasn't a tangible recent memory to it. And the other thing is I spent a lot of time focusing on young people and people who didn't necessarily have any visceral or direct connection to my father, positive or negative. He was part of the history books, but it wasn't, oh, okay, you'll be like him.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Once I was in politics, and then come to it honestly of saying actually, no, I think it is the right thing to go into politics, or it is the right thing to choose to become leader and then hopefully prime minister. But coming to that with an honest and a real approach Requires a level of understanding of oneself, but also understanding of the country you want to serve that is slightly more self-aware than most politicians usually are.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“First of all, my father didn't want that from us. I don't think he expected it of me. He always thought I'd be a teacher my whole life, not a politician. But for me, like anyone goes through moments of trying to define themselves in continuity with their parents or in opposition to their parents. And the one thing I figured out having a father who casts such a big shadow all my life, people going into politics with a father who is a prime minister must be difficult. Well, going to grade one with a father who is a prime minister was pretty difficult. And it's something that I've had to deal with all my life, and I developed a very strong sense of who I am and what I was. And to say, no, I wasn't going to become leader and be totally fine with that.”
2018-02-08 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 215 - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source