“I am a teacher. It’s how I define myself. A good teacher isn’t someone who gives the answers out to their kids but is understanding of needs and challenges and gives tools to help other people succeed. That’s the way I see myself, so whatever it is that I will do eventually after politics, it’ll have to do a lot with teaching.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We need to make sure we’re all working together to change mindsets, to change attitudes, and to fight against the bad habits that we have as a society.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We have created a society where individual rights and freedoms, compassion and diversity are core to our citizenship. But underlying that idea of Canada is the promise that we all have a chance to build a better life for ourselves and our children.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Openness, respect, integrity – these are principles that need to underpin pretty much every other decision that you make.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Gender equality is not only an issue for women and girls.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I remember the bad times as a succession of painful emotional snapshots: Me walking into the library at 24 Sussex, seeing my mother in tears, and hearing her talk about leaving while my father stood facing her, stern and ashen.”
― Justin Trudeau
“If we wander around as politicians jumping at every shadow and desperately afraid of having our words taken out of context or attacks layered on in an unfair way, I think we’re actually doing a disrespect to Canadians, to people’s intelligence.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Who cares about winning? We should focus on serving.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The Liberal party has always worked with multiple parties in the House to make sure we’re being governed in the best interest of Canadians.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I know and I’ve always felt for Canada that we recognize that diversity is a great source of strength.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Of all the memories I have of my father and of our relationship, none is warmer and more poignant than what happened a year before he died, when he came to visit me while I was teaching at West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The fact is Canadians understand that immigration, that people fleeing for their lives, that people wanting to build a better life for themselves and their kids is what created Canada, it’s what created North America.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Canada was built around a very simple premise. A promise that you can work hard and succeed and build a future for yourselves and your kids, and that future for your kids would be better than the one you had.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Withdrawing support from globalization is taking us in the wrong direction.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Throughout our history, Canada’s immigration policy has brought people here who had a pathway to citizenship. They were – and are – nation builders. It has been supported by political parties of all stripes and promoted by successive governments over generations.”
― Justin Trudeau
“You can’t run a government from one single person. What instead matters is that leadership be about gathering around extraordinary individuals and getting the best out of them.”
― Justin Trudeau
“As politicians, we’re very, very much trained to say something and stick with it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“In 2012, the Liberal Party affirmed overwhelmingly at the policy convention that we are a pro-choice party. It means that we are a party that defends women’s rights, and therefore, it would be inconsistent for any Liberal MP to be able to vote to take away women’s rights.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The fact is, I’m opposed to coalitions.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I was a high-school teacher. I am a strong advocate for women’s rights, and I’m not a woman.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Living your life in the public eye is a greater burden than most people can imagine.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Canada has always been there to help people who need it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Every day, at home, I have the astonishing and humbling opportunity – together with my wife Sophie – to nurture empathy, compassion, self-love, and a keen sense of justice in our three kids.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Canada’s extraordinary success is that we have bound together a vast country with a set of shared ideas and beliefs.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My father’s values and vision of this country obviously form everything I have as values and ideals. But this is not the ghost of my father running for the leadership of the Liberal party. This is me.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The Liberal Party will not vote – no Liberal member of Parliament will vote – to take away a woman’s right to choose.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I am so proud of my family, and I am happy to give them all the limelight they want because heaven knows I got more than I need.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We know that trade, NAFTA, the free and open trade between Canada and the U.S. creates millions of good jobs on both sides of the border.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Confident countries are willing to invest in the future.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Vancouver is home. I spent a huge amount of time here as a kid growing up with my mom, with my grandparents who lived here.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My whole life has been about figuring out the balance between knowing who I am and being who I am and accepting that people will come to me with all sorts of preconceptions.”
― Justin Trudeau
“One of the fundamental responsibilities of any Canadian prime minister is to get our resources to market.”
― Justin Trudeau
“If a middle-class family in Shanghai or Guangzhou is looking for a good-quality product, we want them to look at a maple leaf and say, ‘OK, it’s good quality.’”
― Justin Trudeau
“You get more diversity and creativity in your problem solving, and you end up having a much better and more representative approach to solving the challenges faced by the population you serve.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My father raised us to step toward trouble rather than to step away from it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“When my dad left public life, I was 13 years old. I went through my teen years and into adulthood in relative anonymity. After my dad’s funeral, I was suddenly recognizable to people I passed on the street.”
― Justin Trudeau
“At one point, people are going to have to realize that maybe I know what I’m doing.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I became a high school teacher for many years because it was a very tangible, concrete way where I could make a difference, and quite frankly, the kids didn’t care who my father had been, because it was late ’90s; none of them were around or remembered my father.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We need the middle class to feel more confident about its prospects and about its future. We need to cut down on this anxiety that sees some people succeeding and the majority struggling – having to make choices between paying for their kids’ education or saving for their own retirement.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The back and forth between the press and government is essential to any good democracy.”
― Justin Trudeau
“There was a perception that I’d grown up with a silver spoon in my mouth.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think Canadians have always been interested in the choices Americans make because the choices you make inevitably impact upon us… and how we make sure that we get that balance right between continuing to have a good relationship and standing for the things we believe in is what we expect of ourselves.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We provide our citizens upward mobility through economic opportunity.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We’re asking those who have done well to do a little more for the people who need it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Anytime I meet people who got to make the deliberate choice, whose parents chose Canada, I’m jealous. Because I think being able to choose it, rather than being Canadian by default, is an amazing statement of attachment to Canada.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think growing an economy is a good way to help with a deficit, but ultimately, it’s about fiscal discipline and responsible spending – and smart decisions.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I sort of locked into the idea that if I could be the perfect son to both of my parents, well maybe that would be enough to keep them together. And ultimately, obviously, it wasn’t. Regardless of what I tried to do. That was a lesson about limitations.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I trust Canadians’ capacity to determine who will sit in their Parliament.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I’m proud to be a feminist because making sure that everyone understands we all have a role in fighting for equality is the only way to move forward.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Leadership is inspiring extraordinary people to step up and serve their country.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The federal government’s role is to establish a process whereby industry can pitch a project, and Canadians can be reassured that this project is worth the risk. That’s at the heart of governments granting permits and communities granting permission. People understand we do need economic growth. We do need natural resource projects.”
― Justin Trudeau
“If Rob Ford decided he wanted to run for the Liberal Party in 2015, we’d say, ‘No, sorry, the way you approach things, the way you govern, the way you behave is not suitable to the kind of Liberal team we want to build.’”
― Justin Trudeau
“Connecting with Canadians isn’t about what you say, it’s about what you’re listening to. It’s about what you understand.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My idea of freedom is that we should protect the rights of people to believe what their conscience dictates, but fight equally hard to protect people from having the beliefs of others imposed upon them.”
― Justin Trudeau
“As soon as you’re locking doors, you’re narrowing your circle. And your circle gets smaller and smaller until it’s finally just yourself and your buddy and you’ve got no one to party with.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Parents are the centre of a person’s solar system, even as an adult. My dad had a stronger gravitational pull than most, so his absence was bound to leave a deep and lasting void.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We’re investing billions of dollars in housing, in home care on the medical side. We’re investing billions of dollars in public transit that is not just creating good jobs now but is going to help people get to and from their good jobs in more reliable ways.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I have no fears that on a purely merit basis, we will have an embarrassment of riches from which to choose in order to reach gender parity.”
― Justin Trudeau
“This is the kind of balance people expect: both environment and the economy – not one or the other.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The Northwest Passage is Canadian. People can’t just abuse it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“People are very much worried that our kids are not going to inherit the same opportunities that we inherited from our parents.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Any time you have a competitive situation like politics is, there are winners, and there are people who don’t win, and their supporters can sometimes be very emotional.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I’m not going to reduce the choices of Canadians at the ballot box by backroom deals or secret arrangements. I think that’s a cause for cynicism more than anything else.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I have no regrets.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We’re committed to making sure parents have affordable, quality early learning for their kids – there’s no question about it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think we’re pretty much where we need to be on corporate taxes.”
― Justin Trudeau
“When my father died, I had millions of people supporting me in a very, very difficult time. I have received so much from this country. I realize that we’re defined in life not by what we get from this world but by what we have to offer it, and I know that I have a lot to offer this country, and I’m serious about devoting my life to it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Promising something that seems popular at the time that you know you’re never going to deliver – that’s the kind of cynical politics that I don’t want any part of.”
― Justin Trudeau
“People in the street will either call me ‘Prime Minister’ or ‘Justin.’ We’ll see how that goes. But when I’m working, when I’m with my staff in public, I’m ‘Prime Minister.’ I say that if we’re drinking beer out of a bottle, and you can see my tattoos, you should be comfortable calling me ‘Justin.’”
― Justin Trudeau
“You know what, Nickelback’s alright.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Income splitting is a cynical policy, designed by a tired government short on ideas, now reheating old concoctions as their next campaign policy menu.”
― Justin Trudeau
“As someone who grew up with a father who was the prime minister, many people liked me, and many didn’t. I don’t pay much attention to labels and certainly don’t let people define me through the labels they apply. I stay focused on what I need to do.”
― Justin Trudeau
“In regards to the United States, Canadians expect me to stand up for our values and defend our interests and to have a constructive relationship with our largest trading partner and closest neighbour.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The federal government shouldn’t be drawing lines on a map in terms of what transit infrastructure are needed; we should be there to be a partner with the cities, with the provinces, that need that.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think people are understanding that I’m immensely proud of my father. If people talk to me about him, I’ll certainly respond. And there’s a certain generation that still talks about him right off. And I take that with gratefulness and with gratitude.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Quite frankly, I talk about the fact that I’m a feminist as often as I can, and every time I do, it gets huge reaction, and media reacts, and the Twitterverse explodes and things like that, because here I am saying I’m a feminist. I will keep saying that until there is no more reaction to that when I say it, because that’s where we want to get to.”
― Justin Trudeau
“From the very beginning, I’ve talked about how we’re going to strengthen the middle class in this country.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I had to learn to dismiss people who would criticize me based on nothing, but I also had to learn not to believe the people who would compliment me and think I was great based on nothing. And that led me to have a very, very strong sense of myself and my strengths.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The best counter to the kind of radicalization and marginalization that we’ve seen in other parts of the world is to create an inclusive society where everyone, including especially Muslim Canadians, have every opportunity to succeed, just like anybody else.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Much more a skiing family than a hockey family, my dad wasn’t a big fan of the arenas early in the morning on the weekends.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think people understand that if you’re going to have a successful economy, you need people’s potential to be realized. That means education. It means university education, sure, but it also means training, apprenticeships and various kinds of skills diplomas that we know are necessary.”
― Justin Trudeau
“One of the challenges that Vancouver and cities across the country are facing is that we don’t have a federal partner in terms of building for transit, not in the way we need.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Open nominations means it is local Liberals who choose who gets to be their representative. But what that doesn’t mean is that somebody can behave any which way and bully other people out of the nomination and then be the last person standing.”
― Justin Trudeau
“For me, I’ve always been Justin Trudeau, son of. All my life I’ve had to know I was carrying a name, and people were paying more attention to what I had to say, and I had to make a choice early on.”
― Justin Trudeau
“People are very sophisticated in their concerns about various parties, in their hopes for what the next government could look like. And I’m not going to prejudge any possible outcomes.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Ours was not a normal or easy life.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think it’s hard to know how one deals in situations of confrontation until you’re actually in there, so I’m not going to speculate on what I would do.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Our child benefit goes directly to the families who need it the most.”
― Justin Trudeau
“When I get passionate or worked up about an issue, I say things that the Conservatives and opponents and critics like to pounce on.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I’ve made the commitment to Canadians that I’m going to stay myself, and I’m going stay open about it, and I’m going to make sure that the thoughtfulness with which I approach issues continues to shine through.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Canadians want to elect good people to be their voice in Ottawa.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think I’d work on making sure that Canadians have opportunities to find good jobs, to grow, to gain stability in terms of pensions. The reality is that Canadians don’t feel that our economy is working for us.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think we need to price carbon; there’s no question about it. The way we do it needs to be based on science and not political debates and attacks, and that’s why I’m drawing on experts and best practices from around the world.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I have been incredibly lucky all my life. I’ve had a family that has loved me and given me incredible opportunities. I’ve gone to great schools. I’ve travelled across the country.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I have a very difficult, high-pressured job. Everyone knows how challenging it is to balance family responsibilities with a job that takes me across the country and working extremely hard.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My mother is brilliant but emotional and very much gregarious and connected to people. My father was brilliant but focused and driven and very narrow-casted.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think Canadians are tired of politicians that are spun and scripted within an inch of their life, people who are too afraid of what a focus group might say about one comment or a political opponent might try to twist out of context, to actually say much of anything at all.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think Canadians want to get a feel for the people who will serve them… and, for me, I think that Canadians will trust people who trust them.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I trust Canadians to be able to look at the different parties, the different leaders, the plans, the teams, and make a responsible choice. And I’m very, very confident that’s exactly what Canadians are going to do.”
― Justin Trudeau
“When I get out across the country and listen to people, the resentment that I see and the frustration that I see is that we have a generation of people who are fairly convinced that their kids are not going to have a better quality of life or a better future than they will.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Canadians are nice and polite. It’s not just a stereotype.”
― Justin Trudeau
“A very powerful mechanism to get elected is to play on anger and pick those wedge issues.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Nobody knows better than I do what the pressures of party leadership can do to a young family. It tore mine apart.”
― Justin Trudeau
“People still think there’s sort of a debate around the Charter that politicos go into. And I get wrapped up in it, too, from time to time.”
― Justin Trudeau
“People don’t believe that any politician is any different from any other one.”
― Justin Trudeau
“It’s important that people understand who I am and where I come from and not just have it shaped by purely political discourse.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My father found cocktail parties challenging.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Can I actually make a difference? Can I get people to believe in politics once again? Can I get people to accept more complex answers to complex questions? I know I can. I know that’s what I do very well.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Once Canadians no longer believe that there is any good in politics, they no longer feel we can work together to solve the challenges we’re facing, and that is my fundamental motivation: how do we work together as a country to solve the big challenges we’re facing.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Canadians are tired of being cynical.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I know that a prime minister of Canada needs to be deeply respectful of the other levels of government – whether it be municipal, provincial, or even nation-to-nation relationships with aboriginal governments.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Any decision made by my father was the result of a process that had involved many voices and which sometimes had taken weeks or months.”
― Justin Trudeau
“A Canadian on the ground in different parts of the world, whether they’re a diplomat, an aid worker, or a soldier, has an extraordinary, powerful impact.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I don’t feel that I or Canada has to prove anything through big, loud, overt acts.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My mom has always been so generous and so sensitive and so vulnerable and yet exudes so much strength.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We were able to sign free trade agreement with Europe at a time when people tend to be closing off.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We’re actually able to approve pipelines at a time when everyone wants protection of the environment. We’re being able to show that we get people’s fears, and there are constructive ways of allaying them – and not just ways to lash out and give a big kick to the system.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think it’s always been understood that Canada is not a country that’s going to stand up and beat its chest on the world stage, but we can be very helpful in modelling solutions that work.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Certainly in a world where terrorism is a daily reality in the news, it’s easy for people to be afraid. But the fact is that we laid out very clearly – and Canadians get – that it’s actually not a choice between either immigration or security: that of course they go together.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Let’s not pretend we’re in a global free market when it comes to agriculture. Every country protects, for good reason, its agricultural industries.”
― Justin Trudeau
“One of the things with Canada is we’re of a modest enough size that we never feel that the ideal outcome of any given deal is, we win and you lose.”
― Justin Trudeau
“A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. And you devalue the citizenship of every Canadian in this place and in this country when you break down and make it conditional for anyone.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We know that society is better – more prosperous, more stable, more peaceful, more cohesive – when women’s rights are respected and when women are valued, empowered, and lead the way in our communities.”
― Justin Trudeau
“One of the things that we have to realize is we cannot get off gas, we cannot get off oil, fossil fuels tomorrow – it’s going to take a few decades. Maybe we can shorten it, but there’s going to have to be a transition time.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I am so proud to be my mother’s son.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We should have a good working friendship with the United States.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Richard Nixon made a toast to me as a future Prime Minister of Canada when I was 4 months old, sitting as a centerpiece in the middle of a table as my father had plonked me down there. It was more about politeness than any great vision.”
― Justin Trudeau
“What I was raised with in terms of a call to service was just a sense that I was lucky.”
― Justin Trudeau
“One of the reasons why Canadians are generally positively inclined towards immigration is we’ve seen over decades, over generations, that it works.”
― Justin Trudeau
“If you’re a progressive, you really should be a feminist because it’s about equality, it’s about respect, it’s about making the best of the world that we have.”
― Justin Trudeau
“People have to know that when you sign a deal with Canada, a change in governments won’t immediately scrap the jobs and benefits coming from it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think that Canadians in general very much understand… that we need to engage in the world and stand up for human rights.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Big global players like China need to do a better job of respecting human rights.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I don’t put a lot of stock into polls.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think this is the story of this country, that you get to come here and build a better future for yourself and for your neighbours than you could have anywhere else in the world.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I am in politics because every day, I get to work to make the world a little better – for my kids and for yours.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I want my sons to escape the pressure to be a particular kind of masculine that is so damaging to men and to the people around them.”
― Justin Trudeau
“For generations, Canada has been built by hard-working people who want to make sure their kids have a better life than they did.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Income splitting is not a wise investment for Canadians.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Since I became Liberal leader, I’ve focused on building a better Canada for the middle class.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I have nothing against wealth; I believe that government has a role to play in creating it by supporting pro-growth policies. However, success comes with responsibility.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Liberals will continue to put forward positive solutions that will help our economy grow and give all Canadians a real and fair chance at success.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Canadians need a plan for jobs and growth.”
― Justin Trudeau
“One of the jokes among our family was that whenever Dad went to the movies, he insisted on getting his senior citizen’s discount. It was laughable to view him as a traditional senior citizen; he was one of the most robust people I ever knew. Until, very suddenly, he wasn’t.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Since taking office, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party have transformed the Temporary Foreign Worker Program – which was originally designed to bring in temporary workers on a limited basis when no Canadian could be found – into one that has brought in a large pool of vulnerable workers.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We require Canadians who are collecting EI benefits to prove they are looking for work. It’s only fair that we require employers looking to benefit from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to prove they really need it.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I believe it is wrong for Canada to follow the path of countries who exploit large numbers of guest workers, who have no realistic prospect of citizenship. It is bad for our economy in that it depresses wages for all Canadians, but it’s even worse for our country.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think people are looking at Canada and realizing we’re a place that is building for the long term and where the world’s going to be.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I think Canada has a great story, and I’m glad to tell it. And if there’s a moment where the world is paying a little more attention to Canada, well, I think it’s important to try and capitalize on that.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We need to make sure that everyone’s pulling their weight and doing their fair share. Canadians get that, including the wealthy Canadians I talk to.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We’re looking to make sure things are fair, and we’re always looking at ways to lower taxes for the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest one per cent.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We went through a long phase where we defined ourselves in opposition to other people and other countries.”
― Justin Trudeau
“There is no debate about whether or not climate change is happening. We will deal with it as a challenge. But we also take it as an opportunity to invest.”
― Justin Trudeau
“As a prime minister, my job is not to try and influence or opine on what a leader of a different country should be doing.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My job is to do the best possible job for my country, and I wouldn’t want someone else telling me what I should be doing in Canada.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I’m not worried too much about left, right spectrum; I’m worried about what’s actually going to work to help Canadians who are worried about their own jobs, about their kids’ jobs.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Income splitting benefits only fifteen per cent, mostly the wealthiest Canadians, but it’s paid for by everyone.”
― Justin Trudeau
“The fact is, Canada needs investment, particularly in infrastructure.”
― Justin Trudeau
“For me, being able to engage with the details when necessary, when there’s a challenge, when there’s a particularly important pivot, yes, you have to do that. But in general, a leader needs to trust their commanders, needs to trust the team they’ve assembled, to actually execute in the right way.”
― Justin Trudeau
“My father, his values were anchored in the time, but they were also timeless, whether it’s bilingualism, multiculturalism or the charter of rights and freedoms.”
― Justin Trudeau
“It’s always easy to look at either the politics of division or fear as effective tools in politics, but ultimately, even though they can be effective tools to help you get elected, they hinder your ability to actually get the job of building a better future for this country, for this community, done.”
― Justin Trudeau
“I have spent an awful lot of time listening to Canadians, learning from them, working with them.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Some people have come to admire Stephen Harper’s style because he’s standing at the top of the pyramid – that’s not leadership to me.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Politicians are constantly stuck between what is politically expedient and politically beneficial and what is the responsible or right thing to do. It’s a tension we all go through.”
― Justin Trudeau
“CBC has a very important mandate to bind Canada together in both official languages, tell local stories, and make sure we have a sense of our strength, our culture, our stories.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We’re going to make sure there is a strong price on carbon right across the country, and we’re hoping that the provinces are going to be able to do that, in a way, for themselves.”
― Justin Trudeau
“Indigenous lives matter.”
― Justin Trudeau
“We are going to remain an important part of the coalition against ISIL.”
― Justin Trudeau
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