HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2007-05-10, Page 24Despite recent public forays into
high-profile national controversies,
and his own newly-achieved status
as a federal Liberal nominee, Justin
Trudeau stuck mainly to topics of
environmentalism and youth
engagement during his afternoon-
long participation in a school board-
sponsored event Saturday in
Mitchell.
Trudeau, son of former prime
minister Pierre Trudeau, met with
students and delivered a keynote
address as part of, Bringing it Home:
A Celebration of Cultivating
Character at Mitchell District High
School.
A former teacher who’s now
studying for a Master’s degree in
geography, the 36-year-old has been
a supporter of the Ontario education
ministry’s character-building
initiative since being made aware of
it a few years ago.
“Unfortunately, young people
today are told over and over that
they’re supposed to become the
leaders of tomorrow,” he said,
earning some laughs by switching to
a booming, God-referencing voice
for the final four words.
“We need them to realize that
young people have to be leaders
today,” because the real decision-
makers of modern society – he
cited ultra-successful American
businesspeople Bill Gates and
Warren Buffett – aren’t adequate
leaders.
Then, quoting Albert Einstein, he
added a new level of thinking is
necessary: “the problems we have
created cannot be solved at the level
of thinking that created them.”
Later, responding to questions
from the local media, Trudeau
explained “the confidence I have in
our young people comes from years
of working with them and talking to
them.”And he said he hopes to build
his political career by acting as “a
catalyst” who makes it possible for
young people to act as agents of
change.
Reporters attempted to draw
Trudeau into discussions about
public funding for two distinct
Ontario school systems, about
funding for small schools, and about
Quebec separatism. In the first two
cases, he pleaded a reluctance to get
involved in provincial jurisdiction,
and in the third case he declared a
reluctance to open a Constitutional
can of worms.
He did, however, respond that his
own discussions with Canadians
both inside and outside his Montreal
riding reveal “they are tired of
having discussions about things that
divide us. They want to talk about
things that unite us.”
In his keynote address, he avoided
those topics entirely. His message
commenced under what he later
described as a cloud of “doom and
gloom,” beginning with an
exploration of the environmental
effects of modern society, and
advancing to an argument that
Canada’s failure to champion
solutions to these problems is swiftlycausing the country to lose itsreputation as a leader amongnations.“We live in the greatest country onthe planet,” he said (to applause), but
“just being Canadian is (also) a
tremendous responsibility.”
Canadian soldiers “fought way
above our weight class” in two world
wars, Trudeau said, bringing to mind
his own recent acting debut in a CBC
television documentary about the
Second World War.
And even now, “the way we build
our communities; the way we work
together” is seen by many as a
possible model for other nations to
adopt in their efforts to escape from
generations of strife.
But during a question-and-answer
session with the audience, he
charged Canada’s politicians with a
failure to lead, instead encouraging a
society that’s “coasting” on its
reputation. Even though there’s
currently an unprecedented
awakening of environmental
awareness in Canada,
“unfortunately, this has arrived at a
time when we’ve elected a
government which is
disproportionately beholden to oil
and gas interests in Alberta and,
therefore, sort of has its hands tied.”
“We’re the largest per capita
producers of waste in the world; the
largest per capita users of freshwater
in the world,” Trudeau said. A
reputation for global leadership “is
something we need to work to get
back.”
There were references to his
famous lineage. “When I was a kid,it was very easy to developcharacter. All you had to do was goon a camping trip with your parentsin the rain,” he said, conjuringimages of a buckskin-clad Pierre
Trudeau paddling a remote lake.
And when cataloguing the Avon
Maitland District School Board’s list
of 10 positive character attributes –
which it aims to promote through
subtle inclusion in the existing
curriculum – he drew laughs by
having this to say about “fairness”:
“My father believed in a just society,
or so he said. And he did, believe
me. Around the dinner table, you
should have seen him dividing up the
pieces of cake for dessert.”
Mostly, however, he kept coming
back to young people. He professed
a keen familiarity with the
newfangled tools of near-instant
communication favoured by today’s
youth, and offered his take on why
the failure of Canada’s political and
social mainstreams to engage young
people effectively drives them to
seek acceptance in video games,
gangs, and on-line communities.
“What we need to do is convince
our young people that they do
matter,” he said. And, apologizing
for the pessimistic message with
which he began his address, he
added, “I’m very optimistic. Filled
with hope.”
Like the young people who seek a
place where their opinions are
valued, he said, “you need to believe
great things are possible, that the
world is going to change, that you
can make a difference.”
PAGE 24. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 10, 2007.
Face to face
Justin Trudeau meets with the media during a recent visit to Mitchell. Trudeau, a federal
Liberal nominee, was the keynote speaker at an Avon Maitland District School Board event.
(Vicky Bremner photo)
Trudeau helps ‘Cultivate Character’ at event
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