Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now comparing himself to President-elect Donald Trump – but promises to remain uniquely Canadian by preserving values like a gender-based quota cabinet divided equally between men and women.
Facing a crowd of 3,000 people in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Monday night, Trudeau declared, “As different on some levels as my approach is from the incoming president …. We both got elected on a commitment to help the middle class and we’re going to be able to find common ground on doing the kinds of things that will help ordinary families right across the continent.”
Trudeau was responding to questions about whether he would have to fight some of Trump’s policy decisions.
He said jobs in both countries depend upon the Canadian and U.S. leaders getting along and finding common ground but promised to respect “differences,” which he specified as a more liberal refugee policy and his quota cabinet.
“We’re going to stay true to who we are…. Is it going to be a challenge? Sure,” he said.
Trudeau has become increasingly concerned about the new U.S. president in recent weeks, shuffling his cabinet to highlight foreign policy expertise and, according to a report in Tuesday’s Globe and Mail, he will put former Canadian Army general and current Liberal Member of Parliament Andrew Leslie on a special U.S.-Canada relations cabinet committee.
Leslie, a former Canadian commander in Afghanistan knows and worked with Trump national security appointment Michael Flynn, and defense secretary nominee James Mattis. The Conservative opposition was quick to criticize the imminent appointment. Opposition defense critic Member of Parliament James Bezan told The Daily Caller, “Very few doors will open in DC for Leslie. If Trudeau wanted to capitalize on Leslie’s connections, he should have made him a minister.”
Trudeau has also been criticized by town hall crowds for his proposed carbon tax but last night’s crowd seemed more concerned that the prime minister is in the corner with Big Oil. A woman who said she was of aboriginal descent suggested Trudeau was too focused on oil exploration.
“That oil has to stay in the ground,” she said.
Trudeau faced a raft of questions on refugees. Trudeau said Canada is the only country in the world being criticized for being slow to process refugee claimants. That brought outrage over the social media as well.
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