Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reflects on one year after his election win
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reflects on one year after his election win
One year ago today Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau promised to lead a government with a vision, with an agenda for Canada that is positive, ambitious, and hopeful.
As Prime Minister Trudeau continues to ride high in the polls, a year into his majority mandate, he tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti that his government is "very much focused on continuing to listen to people."
"We spent a lot of time travelling across the country listening to people, talking about their hopes and dreams, and listening to their concerns… then we translated that into a government."
On the 2016 budget
The government has committed to $10 billion on new investments in communities "that are going to give returns."
"We know that investing in infrastructure, things like housing, like better transit, green infrastructure, these are things that create jobs in the short and medium term but also lead to greater productivity, greater economic growth that benefits everyone down the line."
On the "broken" relationship with Indigenous Canadians
Trudeau says the government is engaged with Indigenous community leaders and activists in a respectful manner to build capacity and sees tone and approach as vital to this partnership.
As well, Trudeau says the government backs up their commitment with substantial investments.
"The $8.4 billion dollars that we've put forward over five years to start fixing… the tremendous funding gaps there, is going to make a real difference."
On the Middle Class
Trudeau tells Tremonti his proudest achievement this year is creating the child benefit that will be "lifting 300,000 kids across this country out of poverty."
"Lowering taxes for the middle class while raising them on the wealthiest one per cent. That wasn't an easy political decision but it was the kind of thing that we needed to do to make sure that people had the opportunity to be confident about the future."
On the economy vs. environment
Trudeau says one of the biggest challenges he's dealt in government is "getting the balance right between economy and environment."
He says the balancing act is ongoing between "building a growing economy by creating opportunities for clean jobs, while at the same time getting license to get our resources to market in sustainable ways."
"The fact is doing both of those things together, creating economic growth and protecting the environment is the important balance that previous governments certainly didn't get right and that we're very much focused...on getting."
On China relations
Trudeau believes it's important to have a positive relationship with China to ensure they are getting better around rule of law and human rights.
"Having a pragmatic but respectful relationship allows for the kinds of conversations that can...can truly be helpful in making a difference in the world."
The government has committed to signing the arms trade treaty which Trudeau points out the previous government refused to do and he says he's glad to be engaging in "a level of openness and transparency."
On Health Care
"Mr. Harper refused to actually talk with the premiers about health care, just kept sending cheques to the provinces without even checking on what… the money was being spent on."
Trudeau believes it's important to "make sure that the federal money invested in health care actually gets spent on health care by the provinces."
On Tomorrow
"Canadians expect me to stand up for the things that they elected us on," Trudeau tells Tremonti.
"There's an awful lot more to do and we need to focus on doing it right, and doing it together."
Listen to the full conversation at the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Kristin Nelson.