On the sidelines of his presence at the UN summit, Justin Trudeau was invited to the Late Show hosted by Stephen Colbert on Monday evening.
The Prime Minister of Canada addressed several topics during his televised interview. Here are 8 notable quotes from this interview:
1- What makes Canada different?
“It’s a wide range of people from different backgrounds coming together, but in a different way than the melting pot of the United States where everyone becomes American. We’re trying to celebrate differences and make sure people keep their culture and their language.”
2- What are the areas of contention between Canada and the United States? Customs tariffs on lumber, fishing rights?
“These are small problems, but important ones. You’re paying way too much for lumber because of tariffs and it doesn’t make sense.”
3- Many Americans cross the border to buy medicine because it is cheaper. Does that bother you?
“We’re happy to try to help, but it would be a lot easier if you had universal drug insurance.”
4- What is Canada’s role?
“We are a very connected country. We have representatives all over the world, but we also engage with the world in a way that is not common. We are the only major industrialized country that has free trade agreements with every other industrialized country. […] When Canadians arrive, people are usually convinced that we are not there to impose our way of doing things or to conquer, but to really help.”
5- Justin Trudeau mentioned attending a meeting to discuss the situation in Haiti, so the host jokingly asked him if his dogs and cats were okay.
“I’ll skip that question.”
6- Why does xenophobia even exist in Canada?
“We’re not a magical place with unicorns and rainbows all the time. We have our share of problems. What we’ve been able to do, we’ve had to work very hard to get. Universal health care, it took decades to get that.” […] You can unite people around thoughtful ideas, but you can also lose those gains. Right now there’s a dispute about whether dental insurance even exists. We’ve delivered it to 700,000 people across the country, and my opponent is manipulating the truth by telling us it doesn’t exist.”
7- Why is the Conservative Party trying to trigger an election?
“We’re investing so that Canadians can breathe and have money to pay for groceries and everything else. However, people are frustrated and my opponents are trying to capitalize on the idea that maybe people want an election. People blame me for a lot of things for understandable reasons, because I’ve been in office for a while and I’ve tried to navigate these challenges, so sometimes people are crying out for change.”
8- Asked if when he was a young teacher he didn’t want to get into politics, but he eventually changed his mind a few years later, Justin Trudeau says he found his path to politics and his way of making a career out of it.
“What I often tell young people is: if you want to get into politics, find something you’re passionate about, get involved and eventually it will lead you into politics. […] because the issues that are important to you are the ones that should be the vehicle through which you are going to change the world.”
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