Sam ReynoldsJustin Trudeau, MP for Montreal’s Papineau riding, spoke Thursday at a Liberal McGill event held for the UN-sanctioned International Day of Democracy.
The international observance, held each year on Sept. 15, aims to encourage governments to strengthen programs that promote democracy.
The event, attended by roughly 100 students, was held in coordination with the Young Liberals of Canada International Working Group (IWG) and the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY).
Mateusz Trybowski, the Vice-President of the IFLRY, opened the Liberal McGill event by expressing enthusiasm that the International Day of Democracy would encourage students “to be agents of change within [their] communities.”
Trudeau furthered Trybowski’s message by imploring McGillians to promote positive change.
“Everyone makes a difference in the world with everything [he or she does],” Trudeau said. “Your actions have impact; They have meaning.”
Trudeau told students that while it is easy to be an activist and simply get up and rage, it is much harder to take iniative and step forward to work towards change.
As a McGill undergraduate roughly twenty years ago, Trudeau was a member of the Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society (SACOMSS) and the McGill Debating Union, and recommended that students “take an interest in all the various campus clubs.”
Trudeau expressed disappointment, however, in the consistently low levels of youth participation in Canadian elections, and said that “voting will always be a profoundly uncool act” because it means that people are saying “‘I care enough to step out and put an X on this block.'”
When questioned on his Party’s poor performance in Canadian federal elections, most recently in May, Trudeau jokingly asked whether he “might be really lonely after the next election.”
Nonetheless, he said that Bob Rae has been doing “a great job” as the interim leader of the Liberal Party, following the resignation of Michael Ignatieff, and that they are working hard to “address the root causes” of the decline of popularity in his Party especially “getting more and more [young voters] involved in the Liberal Party.” Trudeau said that “[we Liberal MPs] have to shift in our minds what we want to achieve,” and only then can they begin to realize their goals.
As a rising member of the Liberal Party, Trudeau’s name has been raised as a possible permanent replacement for former leader Michael Ignatieff. He is, however, “not interest[ed] in looking [at Liberal] leadership right now.”
Nicolas Méthot, U1 political science, praised the MP for being “in the league of making politics more accessible to everyone.”
Trudeau even came prepared with some advice for the five freshman MPs who, until recently, were all students at McGill University: “Learn. Don’t be in a rush. Ask questions.” They must arrive in Ottawa not to represent Parliament to their constituents but to represent their constituents in Ottawa.
Eric Hendry, Liberal McGill’s Vice President Relations, said that it is “an exciting time to be a young Liberal.” At a time when the Party is desperately trying to find its feet following a crushing election defeat, Trudeau certainly came to express one thing to young voters, and it was clear: “You can have an impact.”
