My Trudeau Interview From 15 Years Ago - Fascinating!
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
205.29631
Summary
Justin Trudeau speaks in front of a bunch of liberal faithful in Cornwall, Ontario 15 years ago. He talks about the importance of diversity and volunteerism, and the legacy of his old man, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in politics.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Hope you're having a great start to your day. Sunday,
00:00:04.740
December the 15th, I've got the big blue mug of coffee just after five o'clock in the morning.
00:00:10.140
And it is Sunday, December the 15th, 10 sleeps until Santa. Merry Christmas to you and your
00:00:15.160
family. Something a little bit different for you today. And I don't know what it was that
00:00:20.100
got me thinking about this this morning, but I got up and listened to an interview
00:00:24.160
that I did about 15 years ago. Pretty close. I know that the file in the computer was put into
00:00:30.820
my computer, an older computer, obviously. I've got a new one today, back in 2010. So that's how
00:00:35.860
old this is. And it's with a very important person in your life, a very consequential person in your
00:00:41.960
life who is in the news constantly here in Canada today. Now, before I get to who it is, I used to
00:00:48.380
do a radio program in Ontario, in Cornwall, Ontario, called Cornwall Today. I worked in radio for
00:00:54.060
over 30 years. And I loved this job. I got to do interviews, at least eight interviews every
00:01:00.000
morning, talking to people from all over the world about everything. Lots of politicians,
00:01:04.320
Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, Premier Dalton McGinty. I spoke to him over the years as well.
00:01:09.160
Today, you're going to hear from Justin Trudeau. Now, before you tune out, listen to this from 15
00:01:15.200
years ago, because it's quite fascinating on what he talks about then and how some of that relates to
00:01:21.180
what's going on right now. Now, before you look at this interview or listen to this interview and
00:01:26.280
think about it through a lens of today, the word diversity is brought up in this interview. And I
00:01:31.880
had no idea we talked about this. But diversity wasn't the dirty word it is now, back then. We also
00:01:38.480
talk about the legacy of his old man. We talk about divisiveness in politics. And I find that
00:01:45.080
fascinating because earlier this week, Pierre Polyev was speaking with a host on CJAD out of
00:01:50.940
Montreal. And he talked about divisiveness in politics. And he talked about Justin Trudeau when
00:01:56.780
he brought up the word. He also talks about volunteerism, which immediately had me thinking
00:02:01.540
about the WE Charity when I listened to it this morning. Now, as far as things go, Trudeau was a brand
00:02:08.120
new MP at this point. He was elected for the first time in 2008 as the MP in Papineau, Quebec,
00:02:14.840
reelected in 2011. And that was the year that Stephen Harper won a majority government.
00:02:20.380
Michael Ignatieff was the leader of the Liberals at that point, stepped down, Bob Ray became the
00:02:25.240
interim leader of the party. Then, as we know, Trudeau ran for the leadership, won it in 2013,
00:02:30.880
and became the prime minister in 2015. So listen to this interview, about five and a half minutes,
00:02:34.940
me with Justin Trudeau in front of a bunch of liberal faithful is where he spoke in Cornwall,
00:02:41.100
Ontario, about 15 years ago. Enjoy. Justin Trudeau joins me. And thank you very much for
00:02:46.960
speaking to me today. Very nice to meet you as well. Oh, it's a pleasure to be back in Cornwall.
00:02:50.680
I was touched by your speech here today. And you're talking to obviously liberal faithful here. But
00:02:56.500
you really started off your speech talking about trying to draw people in, trying to
00:03:00.760
sort of cross a gap and get people to work sort of for a common good in our country.
00:03:06.560
What's that message about? And why is that important to you?
00:03:08.880
Well, much of the cynicism that we get these days around politics is because so much of
00:03:13.100
politics divides people, creates, finds wedge issues and tries to play numbers against each
00:03:19.400
other and one group against the other. And yes, you can get yourself elected. Stephen Harper is proof
00:03:23.920
by doing that. But that's not the way to build the future of a country, particularly a country as
00:03:29.200
diverse as Canada. The strength of this country is in its diversity and in the different backgrounds,
00:03:34.420
the different languages, the different religions, but also the different points of views.
00:03:37.540
And if we're going to build a country that is playing the role that the planet needs it to play
00:03:43.440
on so many different levels, then it's going to be by working together.
00:03:47.260
I'm just wondering, though, obviously, and you made it, you made a joke about you can almost feel the
00:03:51.020
love in the room there. But there was a stadium out there of people who probably didn't like you
00:03:54.140
because you're a liberal. But at the same time, you sort of came off that message of drawing people
00:03:58.580
in. And at the same time, you bashed the people who believe in what Mr. Harper believes. And isn't
00:04:04.340
that an important part of trying to change politics a little bit? Because I kind of heard that in your
00:04:09.760
message today as well. Well, I think you bring up a good point that it's important to be able to
00:04:14.840
disagree with people and disagree with the execution of people and still hold respect for them. And I think
00:04:20.380
I indicated my respect for the fact that Mr. Harper has a particular ideology around smaller
00:04:26.080
government, around less presence in people's lives. My criticism of Mr. Harper is one that he has
00:04:32.140
strayed so far from his own stated ideology and views that we no longer know what it is that he stands
00:04:39.580
for. And my concern is that he's lost his anger. He's lost his philosophical grounding, which is so
00:04:46.880
important for any politician to hold on to and to remain true.
00:04:51.180
But how has the Liberal Party changed? I mean, the Liberals got turfed out of the last time. Mr. Martin
00:04:56.340
didn't do very well because of the past and some of the things that happen. Ad scams certainly comes
00:05:00.220
to mind. How has the Liberal Party changed over the last few years? You certainly have a new leader now,
00:05:06.720
Well, one of the things that we're looking at right now is rebuilding the Liberal Party from the
00:05:11.320
ground up, reaching out to grassroots, reaching out to basic organizational elements, to bottom-level
00:05:18.040
fundraising, involving more young people in, getting the party rebuilt from the ground up,
00:05:23.320
because there is no question that the Liberal Party is a party of the centre. But as has been
00:05:28.420
proved many times in the past, if you want to hold on to the centre, you have to make the centre a place
00:05:33.920
of reform. And that's what the Liberal Party is. We're taking a very serious look at all the big
00:05:39.080
challenges we're facing. And we're big tent enough to be able to draw in people from all sides,
00:05:44.600
not just as voters, but as people who can offer solutions. And I think that openness towards
00:05:50.240
engaging everyone in this important dialogue in a very transparent, in a very generous way,
00:05:55.780
is what the Liberal Party is best at. And that's what we're doing.
00:05:58.800
Can I change gears just for a moment? I think it was in October, you drew a good lot. You had an
00:06:03.040
opportunity to stand up in Parliament. You had an opportunity to talk about youth volunteerism.
00:06:07.300
I know that that's been a big part of your father's past, sort of carrying on with the
00:06:12.340
legacy of what your dad did with that particular thing?
00:06:14.440
It's not so much about carrying on the legacy of my father as being true to the values that I was
00:06:20.340
raised with. And one of the things that I've been incredibly lucky with all my life is to have
00:06:24.560
understood that as an individual, I can make a difference. And for me, one of the great tragedies
00:06:29.780
of our modern Western civilisation is the individual doesn't always feel like they have a capacity
00:06:35.460
to contribute to make the world a better place. And one of the really powerful ways of doing that
00:06:40.760
is to encourage volunteerism and encourage a year of service for young people who want to,
00:06:45.880
who can get out and discover how they can make a difference in the world. And that would
00:06:49.440
have tremendous benefits for community organisations, for individuals, for young people who will discover
00:06:55.540
how they can make a difference. And it's something I think we need more of.
00:06:58.820
Just one more question. Certainly, people look up there on the stage and they see an impressive
00:07:04.920
person, a great, great speech. But certainly people look up there and they say, hey, that's
00:07:10.300
Pierre Trudeau's son. Is there really an immense amount of pressure on you because of, because of
00:07:15.880
what your dad meant and because of him being the Prime Minister and because of him probably being the
00:07:21.920
You know, I think most of the pressure, I mean, yes, people, people tend to put a pressure on me.
00:07:27.660
I think they put pressure on me. The biggest pressure comes from myself. I know that I was
00:07:33.100
incredibly lucky growing up to have had a mom and a dad who loved me, who offered me all sorts of
00:07:37.940
different ways to grow, to develop, to challenge myself, a great education, a chance to travel around
00:07:42.200
the country and around the world. I've been given a lot. And therefore, the pressure on me is to be
00:07:47.140
worthy of some of the things I was given. But that's something that we all share. Every single one of us,
00:07:51.620
just by dint of living in Canada, has been incredibly lucky in their lives. And we all
00:07:55.840
need to figure out how to step up and, and, and contribute. And, you know, as for the pressure
00:08:00.400
on me, I was raised by a man who gave me strong shoulders.
00:08:04.640
Justin Trudeau is the MP for Papineau. Thank you very much for joining me on Cornwall today.
00:08:10.140
So what do you think? I'd love to hear what your thoughts are in the comments below about that
00:08:15.840
interview from almost 15 years ago with Justin Trudeau. I think I said at the beginning that his
00:08:20.800
speech in front of the party faithful at the Cornwall Civic Complex that day touched me and
00:08:26.280
it probably did. At that point, he was talking about bringing people back into the Liberal Party.
00:08:32.980
And, you know, you have to give the guy credit. He did that in a big way. He won huge in 2015 and
00:08:39.360
he's been the Prime Minister of the country for the last almost 10 years. But he has also been
00:08:44.720
an incredibly divisive Prime Minister and he has divided our country more than anything.
00:08:50.360
And isn't it fascinating that was brought up in the interview as well. Leave your, leave your
00:08:54.880
comments below. Love to hear from you. I'll read them all. Maybe I'll do a follow-up on it.
00:08:59.600
And thanks for watching this video. See you in the next one.