There will be many highs and lows between now and April. And if we work hard and find success, I know there will be many, many more between then and 2015.
I do not present myself as a man with all the answers. In fact, I think we’ve had quite enough of that kind of politics.
But I do know I have a strong sense of this country. Where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go. And I believe I can bring new forces to bear on old problems. I can convince a new generation of Canadians that their country needs them. That it values their energy, ingenuity, and vision. Together, we can convince young Canadians that serving this great country is its own reward.
I promise you this: if you entrust me with the privilege of leadership, I will work long, hard, and tirelessly. I learned first-hand from the people of Villeray, Saint-Michel, and Park Extension that there are no shortcuts, no easy ways to earn trust and support. You have to work at it, day in and day out.
Because that’s what it’s going to take, and that’s what Canadians deserve.
Think about it for a moment: When was the last time you had a leader you actually trusted? And not just the nebulous “trust to govern competently,” but actually trusted, the way you trust a friend to pick up your kids from school, or a neighbour to keep your extra front door key? Real trust? That’s a respect that has to be earned, step by step.
I feel so privileged to have had the relationship I’ve had, all my life, with this country, with its land, and with its people.
From my first, determined steps as a toddler to my first, determined steps as a politician: we’ve travelled many miles together, my friends . . .
You have always been there for me. You have inspired me, and supported me in good and more difficult times. And you have made me the man and the father I have become.
I chose today to launch this campaign because it is my little brother’s birthday. Michel was killed in an avalanche, doing what he loved, in the country that he loved as much as anyone I have ever known. Michel would be thirty-seven years old today. Every day, I think about him and I remember not to take anything for granted. To live my life fully. And to always be faithful to myself.
At Michel’s funeral, my father read from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child. But now that I am a man, I put away childish things.”
It is time for us, for this generation of Canadians, to put away childish things. More, it is time for all of us to come together and get down to the very serious, very adult business of building a better country. For ourselves, for our fellow Canadians, and for our children.
We Canadians live in a blessed country. We are the most diverse people on earth, yet we are peaceful. We are tough, but we are compassionate. We are confident, but we work hard and we earn it. We have resources that are the envy of the world.
Let us pledge to one another to match those resources with resourcefulness. Let us rededicate ourselves to the glorious, improbable work-in-progress that is Canada. And to serve its people through the only party willing to speak to and for all Canadians: the Liberal Party of Canada.
So tonight, Sophie and I draw on our love for our family and offer up all we have in service to Canada, and to each and every one of you.
Join us.
Speech delivered at the Liberal Party of Canada Leadership National Showcase
Toronto, April 6, 2013
I stand before you a son of Quebec. A grandson of British Columbia. And a servant of Canada.
These Canadians you just met [in the introduction video] are a few of the thousands I’ve had the honour to meet, to talk with, and to learn from over the past six months.
Their stories are remarkable. Remarkable because they are so common in Canada.
With hope and hard work, every day Canadians live the values that unite this country. Optimism, openness, compassion, service to community, generosity of spirit.
My friends, our party must be their party.
We must convince Chanchal that we share his work ethic, his desire to serve, his optimism about the future.
We must prove to Penny that we are in it for her. That we understand the burdens she carries, every day, to make life better for her kids, her neighbours, her community.
We must build with Justine and Ali a country worthy of their dreams and show them that Canadians across our land already share the same values as Quebecers: integrity, openness, and community engagement.
To those who think that Canadians do not share common values, I encourage you to spend more time in this country. All of this country.
My fellow Liberals, my message to you is simple. To lead Canada, we must serve Canadians. And we must prove it with acts more than words. I say that not as a son who learned it from his father, but as a father who every day learns that from his kids.
The Conservatives have forgotten about the value of service. The only time they talk about “community service” these days is when it’s a punishment for a crime. And anyway, the only person Mr. Harper wants his caucus to serve is their leader.
Well, that’s not good enough. We need to be a party of community leaders, devoted to community service. That’s why I am calling for open nominations for all Liberal candidates in every single riding in the next election.
Mr. Harper is showing us how governments grow out of touch. Canadians are getting tired of the negative, divisive politics of the Conservatives. And are disappointed that the NDP, with Mr. Mulcair, has decided that if you can’t beat them, you might as well join them.
Mr. Mulcair and Mr. Harper are masters of the politics of division. They are content to exploit differences and disagreements to further their own interests.
East against West, Quebec against the rest of Canada, the wealthy against the less fortunate, cities against regions, and so on.
This is old politics. But in the short term, it can work. It was how Mr. Harper’s government was elected.
We need to be better than that. We are an optimistic, hard-working, problem-solving people. Canadians want a positive alternative that brings new solutions, new ideas, and a new way of doing politics. I’m more convinced than ever that if we work hard every day between now and then, the Liberal Party of Canada will be that positive choice in 2015.
So let me be perfectly clear on one point.
I want to be your leader because I want to work with you, and with millions of Canadians, to build that positive alternative to the Conservatives. One that Canadians will choose freely because we will have earned their trust.
Canadians don’t just want a different government. They want a better government.
Those who think we need to win at any cost—whatever the means—are mistaken. It is a mistake to believe that just getting rid of this government will make all of Canada’s problems disappear.
This is a naive and simplistic way to approach our future.
We are facing real and significant challenges.
Middle-class Canadians have seen their incomes stall, while their costs go up and their debts explode. Simply getting rid of Mr. Harper will not get them their first real raise in thirty years.
Young Canadians will not get jobs just because Mr. Harper is gone.
Quebecers will not automatically re-engage at the heart of our federation simply because Mr. Harper is no longer prime minister.
Our international reputation on the environment will not be restored the day after Mr. Harper leaves.
The truth is, Canadians want to vote for something, not just against somebody. They want to vote for a long-term vision that embodies our values, our dreams, and our aspirations.
They will not get that vision from a Frankenstein’s monster, at war with itself over fundamental issues like the Constitution, natural resources, and free trade. It would fail in its primary goal: it would extend, not end, Mr. Har
per’s career.
From Ponoka, Alberta, to Île-des-Chênes, Manitoba, to Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canadians are hoping that we have learned that lesson. Over the course of this campaign, I began to describe for Canadians a vision of this country that is very, very different from this government’s.
Our highest economic objective will be prosperity for the middle class and those Canadians who are working hard to join it. Our grounding principle will be equality of opportunity. Our agenda will develop our skills, support our vulnerable, attract investment, and expand trade.
It is a vision that embraces diversity. One that recognizes Canada is strong because of our differences, not in spite of them. One that believes deeply in federalism, balancing national priorities with regional and local means of meeting them.
A vision that sees newcomers to this country as community- and nation-builders; as citizens, not just employees or a demographic to be mined for votes.
Ours is a vision that knows economic prosperity and environmental health can—and must—go hand in hand in the twenty-first century. We will not ignore science, or shy away from tough, urgent issues like carbon pricing. Nor will we succumb to easy politics by demonizing one sector of the economy or region of the country.
A Liberal Party led by me would never use western resources to buy eastern votes.
We will stand for national unity by offering Quebecers and all Canadians a progressive political project that rallies us all. We will be audacious and ambitious, because this country is greater than the sum of its parts.
Our foreign policy will promote peace, democracy, and development. Canada must be a key player on the world stage, bringing forward positive debate and discussions—not divisive ones as is the case today.
My fellow Liberals, make no mistake about it. With me as your leader, you will get a clear, positive vision for Canada. We’ve begun to lay it out in this campaign. We’ve focused on the big issues like the prosperity of the middle class, a healthy democracy, and a sustainable economy.
It’s a vision that you and I are going to finish, together, with Canadians.
That is doing politics differently.
If we work hard and stay optimistic, we will put forward an irresistible alternative to the Conservatives thirty months from now. Irresistible not because it is Liberal, but because it will be 100 percent, undeniably Canadian.
It won’t be easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. But that is the path to victory in 2015.
Hope, my friends, yes. Always hope. But more than that. Hope and hard work.
You see, the biggest problem with Mr. Harper’s government is not that they’re mean-spirited. It’s that they’re unambitious.
After all, what is the Conservatives’ economic message these days? That Canadians should be happy we don’t live in Europe?
What’s worse, the Conservatives use our challenges as opportunities to demonize their opponents and divide Canadians, not to find solutions.
It is up to us, the Liberal Party, to say that the Conservative way of doing politics is not good enough. Canadians are better than their politics. Canada deserves far better.
Now, there are those who ask me, What makes you think you can take this on?
To them, I say this: I have lived and breathed every square kilometre of this country from the day I was born. I’ve lived and worked in the East and the West, in French and in English. I am proud to have lifelong friends, colleagues, and supporters from the Arctic archipelago to Point Pelee.
And I have met, talked with, and learned from more Canadians in the past six months than Mr. Harper has in the past six years.
I have been open to Canadians my entire life. And because of that, I have a strong sense of this country. Where it has been, where it is, and where Canadians want it to go.
And what is it with Conservative attacks on teachers? They’ve never met a teacher they wouldn’t pick a fight with. I am fiercely proud to be one of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who belong to the teaching profession. And let me tell you this, my friends, this teacher fully intends to fight back.
In closing, I want to share a story with you.
Many of you know that today marks an anniversary. Exactly forty-five years ago tonight, a gathering of Canadians made my father leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Many Canadians have approached me over the course of this campaign to share stories about my dad. So let me tell you a special one.
I met Constable Jeff Ling at Loyalist College in Belleville. It was at the end of a long morning. Constable Ling came up to the front of the room to give me a gift. I recognized it instantly. It was a picture of Dad and me. You’ve probably seen it. I was about two years old and Dad was hurrying up to Rideau Hall, with me tucked roughly under his arm.
Both Dad and I are looking at an RCMP officer. He’s dressed in full uniform and saluting us crisply.
That picture means as much to Jeff as it does to me. Because that officer was his father.
What moved me was that here Jeff was, serving his country a generation later, with the same dedication and quiet pride as his father. In that moment, he evoked the thousands of Canadians I had the unique honour of growing up with. Men and women for whom service to Canada was its own reward.
I know there are those who say this movement we’re building is all about nostalgia. That it’s not really about me, or you, or Canada. Let’s face it: they say that it’s about my father.
Well, to them I say this:
It is. It is about my dad. And Constable Ling’s dad. And our mothers. And yours. It’s about all of our parents and the legacy they left us. The country they built for us. Canada.
But we know now what they knew then. It’s more about the future than the past. It is always, in every instance, about our children more than our parents’ legacy.
That with hope and hard work, we can make progress happen. That we can leave a better country to our kids than we inherited from our parents.
Progress. That is the core value of the Liberal Party. That is why generations of Canadians, from every corner of our land, and every walk of life, poured their heart and their soul and their ideas and their sweat into our party.
I said back in October that the Liberal Party didn’t create Canada. Canada created the Liberal Party. Well, the last six months have taught me that maybe, just maybe, Canadians are willing to do that again.
We can lead the change that so many Canadians want to make happen.
I’m asking you for your time, for your smarts, for your hope, and your hard work.
And this week, I’m asking for your vote to become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
Join me, join us, and our work will make us proud. Believe, now and always, in our country.
Thank you.
Liberal Party of Canada
Leadership Acceptance speech
Ottawa, April 14, 2013
Thank you, my friends, thank you.
Normally I’d start by thanking family and friends for putting up with my absences and allowing me to go off and campaign, but that’s not exactly right. My decision to seek the leadership was never in spite of my responsibility to my family, but because of it. And therefore family and friends were always at the very heart of this campaign. We did this together.
Thank you, Sophie. Thank you, Xavier and Ella-Grace.
To my fellow candidates, Joyce, Martha, Karen, Deborah, Martin, David, George, and Marc, and to the thousands of Canadians who worked on your campaigns, I want to say: we are not adversaries but allies. Your courage, intelligence and commitment will continue to bring honour to the Liberal Party of Canada.
And for the health of this party, the hard work he has done, I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, my friend, my colleague, and a great Canadian, Bob Rae. Bob, we continue to need your leadership, your wisdom,
and your unparalleled commitment to the country and to our party.
This has been a great campaign. We are fiercely proud that it has been fuelled by volunteers. More than twelve thousand Canadians stepped up. Thank you for your dedication to making this wonderful country even better.
Like every effective organization, this one has had principled, brilliant, and generous leadership: Katie Telford and Gerald Butts. My friends and compatriots. Thank you for what you’ve done, for what you’re doing, and for what we are going to do together. Rob and Jodi, George, Aidan, and Ava, thank you for sharing Gerry and Katie with us.
My fellow Liberals, it is with great respect for those who have stood in this place before me, and great resolve to do the hard work required in front of us, that I accept, with humility, the confidence you have placed in me. Thank you. All of you. For your trust. For your hope. For choosing to be part of this movement we’re building.
And on this lovely spring evening in our nation’s capital, I am honored to stand with you, proud to be the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.
My friends, this is the last stop of this campaign. But the first stop of the next one.
Over the past six months, I have been to hundreds of communities from coast to coast to coast. I’ve met, talked with, and learned from thousands and thousands of Canadians. And because of your hard work, more than one hundred thousand voters have sent a clear message: Canadians want better leadership and a better government.
Canadians want to be led, not ruled. They are tired of the negative, divisive politics of Mr. Harper’s Conservatives. And unimpressed that the NDP, under Mr. Mulcair, have decided that if you can’t beat them, you might as well join them.
We are fed up with leaders who pit Canadians against Canadians. West against East, rich against poor, Quebec against the rest of the country, urban against rural.
Canadians are looking to us, my friends. They are giving us a chance, hopeful that the party of Wilfrid Laurier can rediscover its sunny ways. Hopeful that positive politics has a fighting chance against the steady barrage of negativity that you and I both know is coming soon to TV screens across Canada. The phone messages, our volunteers tell us, have already started.
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