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unidentified
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Our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country. | |
| Coming up Tuesday morning, Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Centre, discusses Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's resignation and the future of U.S.-Canada relations. | ||
| This as President-elect Trump prepares to take office. | ||
| And then the Mercatus Centers, Christine McDaniel, on President Biden's decision to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. steel by Japan's Nippon Steel and Trump trade and tariff policies. | ||
| Also, author and journalist Jonathan Alter, who wrote a biography of Jimmy Carter, talks about the former president's life and influence in American politics. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Tuesday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at cspan.org. | ||
| Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is resigning as the nation's prime minister and as the leader of the Liberal Party once his party selects a new leader. | ||
| The Prime Minister made the announcement during a news conference outside his residence in Ottawa. | ||
| This is about 30 minutes. | ||
| So I thought it might be fun for us to do this again. | ||
| Bon matai! | ||
| Every morning I've woken up as Prime Minister, I've been inspired by the resilience, the generosity, and the determination of Canadians. | ||
| It is the driving force of every single day I have the privilege of serving in this office. | ||
| That is why, since 2015, I've fought for this country, for you, to strengthen and grow the middle class. | ||
| Why we rallied to support each other through the pandemic, to advance reconciliation, to defend free trade on this continent, to stand strong with Ukraine and our democracy, and to fight climate change and get our economy ready for the future. | ||
| We are at a critical moment in the world. | ||
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unidentified
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Mr Canadien, every morning I've woken up as Prime Minister and I've been inspired by the resiliency and the generosity and the determination that characterizes Canadians. | |
| This is what has driven me on a daily basis. | ||
| And it's been a privilege to be Prime Minister. | ||
| This is why, since 2015, I fought for this country, for you, Canadians, to strengthen the middle class. | ||
| That's why Canadians mobilized to support each other during the pandemic to move reconciliation forward, to defend free trade on our continent, and to support Ukraine and democracy and to fight against climate change as well and to prepare the economy for the future. | ||
| We're really going through a critical time in world history. | ||
| Friends, as you all know, I'm a fighter. | ||
| Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. | ||
| I care deeply about this country. | ||
| And I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians. | ||
| And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history. | ||
| That's why this morning I advised the Governor-General that we need a new session of Parliament. | ||
| She has granted this request, and the House will now be prorogued until March 24. | ||
| Over the holidays, I've also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future. | ||
| Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement. | ||
| So last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today. | ||
| I intend to resign as party leader, as Prime Minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process. | ||
| Last night, I asked the President of the Liberal Party to begin that process. | ||
| This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election. | ||
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unidentified
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Mr. Zami, how you're fighter, in my favourite friends, I've always been a fighter. | |
| I've always been a fighter because I really care for Canada and Canadians, and I've always been driven by what's in the best interests of Canadians as well. | ||
| And the fact is that despite our best efforts to get through the parliamentary impasse, Parliament has been paralyzed for months after the longest minority parliament in the history of our country. | ||
| This is why this morning I met with the Governor-General to tell her that we need a new parliamentary session. | ||
| And she granted that request, and the House will therefore be prorogued until the 24th of March. | ||
| During Christmas, I had time to think and to have long conversations with my family about our future throughout my career. | ||
| All success I've had personally has been due to their support and encouragement. | ||
| So yesterday evening at dinner, I shared with my children the decision that I'm sharing with you today. | ||
| I intend to resign as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Prime Minister of Canada once the party will have chosen its next leader after a national competitive and robust process. | ||
| Yesterday evening I asked the President of the Liberal Party to take the necessary steps. | ||
| The country deserves a clear choice in the next election. | ||
| And it's become obvious for me that if I'm focused on internal fights, I can't be the best option for that election. | ||
| The Liberal Party of Canada is an important institution in the history of our great country and of our democracy as well. | ||
| A new Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party will carry the values and the ideas of the Liberal Party into the next election. | ||
| I'm looking forward to watching that process over the coming months. | ||
| We were elected for the third time in 2021 to strengthen the economy after the pandemic and to move the interests of Canada forward in a complex world. | ||
| And this is what I will continue to do and what we will all continue to do for Canadians. | ||
| The Liberal Party of Canada is an important institution in the history of our great country and democracy. | ||
| A new Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party will carry its values and ideals into that next election. | ||
| I'm excited to see the process unfold in the months ahead. | ||
| We were elected for the third time in 2021 to strengthen the economy post-pandemic and advance Canada's interests in a complicated world. | ||
| And that is exactly the job that I and we will continue to do for Canadians. | ||
| Thank you very much, Mr. Emily. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Prime Minister. | |
| We'll now go to questions, starting with Laurence Martin, Radio-Canada. | ||
| Bonjour, Monsieur Trudeau. | ||
| Hello, Mr. Trudeau. | ||
| Do you want to do this fight against Pierre Poilièvre? | ||
| You wanted to go up against Mr. Poilievre, but there's been infighting in your party for the past few months. | ||
| Why have you decided to make this decision today? | ||
| Why did you change your mind? | ||
| Well, as you know, I'm not someone who steps back from a fight, especially such an important fight for our party and for the country, in fact. | ||
| But I do this job because the interests and the welfare of our country and our democracy are important to me. | ||
| And it's become very, very clear that I cannot be the leader to take the party into the next election because of internal divisions. | ||
| As you all know, I am a fighter and I am not someone who backs away from a fight, particularly when a fight is as important as this one is. | ||
| But I have always been driven by my love for Canada, by my desire to serve Canadians and by what is in the best interests of Canadians. | ||
| And Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election. | ||
| And it has become obvious to me with the internal battles that I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election. | ||
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unidentified
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You've been in office for almost 10 years. | |
| Canada has changed under your government. | ||
| If there was one accomplishment that you're most proud of, is there also perhaps a regret that you might want to share with us as well? | ||
| Well, in 2015, we were elected on a promise of working for the middle class in this country. | ||
| And this is what we succeeded in doing, I think. | ||
| We've reduced poverty, we helped families, we created an economy that works for many more people in preparation for a digital future and for the greater impact of climate change as well. | ||
| We've done a lot of work with Canadians. | ||
| Canada is a better country today thanks to the work that we've all done over the past few years. | ||
| Well, a regret I continue to think that if our electoral system had been changed People to be able to have a first or second or third choice parties would have spent more time trying to find common ground rather than trying to build polarization in our country. | ||
| But I couldn't change our electoral system unilaterally in this country. | ||
| We got elected in 2015 to fight for the middle class, and that's exactly what we've done over the past years. | ||
| We reduced their taxes, we increased the benefits to families, we made sure the economy was focused on working for everyone and not just a few. | ||
| And that has changed, that has dropped poverty rates in Canada, that has brought more people into the workforce, that has moved us forward on reconciliation in a way that has deeply improved the opportunities and success of Canadians, despite the incredibly difficult times the world is going through right now. | ||
| There's lots more work to be done, and I know that this party and this country, and Canadians, will keep doing it. | ||
| If I have one regret, particularly as we approach this election, well, there are probably many regrets that I will think of, but I do wish that we'd been able to change the way we elect our governments in this country so that people could simply choose a second choice or a third choice on the same ballot, | ||
| so that parties would spend more time trying to be people's second or third choices, and people would have been looking for things they have in common instead of trying to polarize and divide Canadians against each other. | ||
| I think in this time, figuring out how to pull together and find common ground remains something that is really important for democracies. | ||
| But I could not change unilaterally without support of other parties our electoral system that wouldn't have been responsible. | ||
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unidentified
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Tonda McCharles, Toronto Star. | |
| Prime Minister, up until three weeks ago, you were intending to stay, and it seems that the event three weeks ago of Ms. Freeland coming out and saying you were firing her as her finance minister was the catalyst that brought us here today. | ||
| So can you explain your side of what happened there? | ||
| Christia has been by my side for close to 10 years now. | ||
| She has been an incredible political partner through just about everything we have done as a government and as a party over the past decade. | ||
| I had really hoped that she would agree to continue as my Deputy Prime Minister and take on one of the most important files that not just this government but this country is facing. | ||
| But she chose otherwise. | ||
| In regards to what actually happened, I am not someone who's in the habit of sharing private conversations. | ||
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unidentified
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Christia has been by my side for the past 10 years now. | |
| She's been a political partner, an essential partner. | ||
| She's been involved in almost everything we've accomplished as a party and a government, I think. | ||
| I would really have loved for her to choose to stay on as Vice Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, rather, and that she take on One of the most important files that our government of Canadian will be facing in the coming months and years, but she didn't want to do that. | ||
| in terms of the details of that conversation. | ||
| I'm not someone who's inclined to share the details of private conversations. | ||
| ... party as an institution and the internal battles right now, but I'm wondering if you feel that another leader will have more success than you will at beating Pierre Poiliev in the next campaign. | ||
| Pierre Poiliev's vision for this country is not the right one for Canadians. | ||
| Stopping the fight against climate change doesn't make sense. | ||
| Backing off on the values and strength and diversity that Canada has always, always worked to pull itself together on is not the right path for the country. | ||
| Attacking journalists, the CBC institutions, that's not what Canadians need in this moment. | ||
| We need an ambitious, optimistic view of the future, and Pierre Polyev is not offering that. | ||
| I look forward to the fight as progressives across this country stand up for the kind of vision for a better country that Canadians have always carried, | ||
| despite the tremendous pressures around the world to think smaller, to veer towards the harright, and to be less ambitious for what we can be and do as a country when the world really needs Canada. | ||
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unidentified
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That's not an answer, though. | |
| Yes or no? | ||
| Is there another leader that could beat him? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
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unidentified
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Pierre Polievre has a very small and wrong-headed vision for this country. | |
| He has a vision. | ||
| He has a vision. | ||
| Even if you accept the Prime Minister, he has an actual vision. | ||
| He is calling for stepping back from the fight against climate change, saying that we shouldn't be investing in a more inclusive and greener economy and that we should build a division between Canadians rather than coming together to face a future in an optimistic, ambitious way. | ||
| That's not the right choice for Canadians at all. | ||
| And I'm looking forward to continuing to be part of a progressive movement that looks to a better future for Canadians based on optimism and the work that Canadians have always done to build a better world. | ||
| Hello, Mr. Trudeau. | ||
| 16 years ago in December 2008, Stephen Harper parogued Parliament to void a confidence vote that he knew he would lose because the three opposition parties intend to vote against him. | ||
| This is the situation you find yourself in today. | ||
| At the time, Stéphane Dio, the Liberal leader at the time, said this was a hindrance to democracy. | ||
| I'd like to know why, if this was bad for bad under the Harper government, it's good for you. | ||
| Well, the Governor-General in 2008 had correctly concluded that the House of Commons had just put their confidence in to Harper's government despite a letter signed by the three opposition leaders. | ||
| This was a political letter, but the voice of the House was paramount before Christmas, | ||
| He won three non-confidence votes and we are going to have to retest the confidence of the House in March to get the budget through. | ||
| In 2008, the Governor-General correctly concluded that because the very last times in the previous weeks that the confidence of the House had been tested, it had passed that confidence test, Stephen Harper continued to have the confidence of the House. | ||
| And it actually would bear out because as soon as they came back from the prorogation, Stephen Harper won a confidence vote once again. | ||
| So a political document or political speeches doesn't carry the kind of weight that winning a confidence vote means. | ||
| But this prorogation will take us only into March, and there will be confidence votes in March in the passing of supply that will allow Parliament to weigh in on confidence in a way that is entirely in keeping with all the principles of democracy and the workings of our strong institutions. | ||
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unidentified
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With respect, don't you think this is undemocratic because you're not allowing Parliament to express its lack of confidence in your government while your party is looking for a new leader? | |
| Shouldn't you just call an election? | ||
| Don't you think that would be the better approach? | ||
| I think you've clearly seen, as everyone has in the Parliamentary Press Gallery, just how the Parliament has stopped working over the past few months. | ||
| We're constantly facing questions of privilege. | ||
| There are constant filibustering. | ||
| And we've been able to do very little, in fact, over the past few months in Parliament. | ||
| It needs a reset, I think. | ||
| It needs to calm down a bit. | ||
| It needs to get down to work. | ||
| For Canadians, we should be constantly involved in petty politics, and that's what we're seeing from the Conservatives. | ||
| So this reset requires two things. | ||
| First of all, prorogation that we can start with from a new approach in Parliament. | ||
| And secondly, the Liberal Party will undertake a leadership race that will murder the parties. | ||
| And if I'm not the one to lead the party into the next election, polarization in Parliament that we currently see should die down a bit. | ||
| Canadians need a well-functioning parliament, especially in this very complex world of ours. | ||
| And these two things I just mentioned while I was to reset Parliament and why not an election then? | ||
| You didn't tell us that. | ||
| Parliamentary Press Gallery and anyone who's been watching politics closely over the past months will know that Parliament has been entirely seized by obstruction and filibustering and a total lack of productivity over the past few months. | ||
| We are right now the longest serving minority government in history, and it's time for a reset. | ||
| It's time for the temperature to come down, for people to have a fresh start in parliament, to be able to navigate through these complex times, both domestically and internationally. | ||
| And the reset that we have is actually two parts. | ||
| One is the prorogation, but the other part is recognizing that removing me from the equation as the leader who will fight the next election for the Liberal Party should also decrease the level of polarization that we're seeing right now in the House and in Canadian politics and allow people to actually focus on serving Canadians in this House and with their work the way Canadians deserve. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning, Prime Minister Stephanie Taylor with the National Post. | |
| Given, as you just said, there's going to be confidence votes in March. | ||
| Opposition parties have said they are prepared to bring down your government. | ||
| What kind of chances do you think you are leaving to your successor, given that there will only be mere weeks for them to introduce themselves to Canadians before heading into an election, potentially? | ||
| I have a tremendous amount of confidence in both Canadians and in parliamentarians' interest in serving Canadians in the right way. | ||
| We're in a minority government right now, and there hasn't been an active leadership in a minority government in more than 50 years in this country. | ||
| And there is always going to be the challenge of having a leadership race while a parliament would face confidence votes in the course of delivering supply to the government. | ||
| So this is something that we're going to navigate through, but I truly feel that removing the contention around my own continued leadership is an opportunity to bring the temperature down, | ||
| have a government that will focus on the complex issues that are coming forward in the coming months, while the party gets to have a full national process that brings in people from right across the country and makes A determination about the best person to carry the progressive liberal standard into the next election. | ||
|
unidentified
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Can you clarify whether ministers who would like to campaign for your job will have to step out of cabinet? | |
| And how can the Liberal government be in a position to protect Canadian businesses and Canadians from the threat of tariffs from incoming President Donald Trump when members of the government are going to be focused on who's going to be taking your job? | ||
| The government will still, and the cabinet will still be very much focused on doing the job that Canadians elected us to do in 2021, which is fight for their interests, stand up for their well-being, and make sure that they are good and that Canadians are protected and strong. | ||
| There will be a leadership process and the rules will unfold over the coming weeks. | ||
| But I can assure you that the tools and the need to stand up for Canadians, to protect Canadians in their interests and continue to fight for the economy, is something that everyone in this government will be singularly focused on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'd just like to point out that the rules of any leadership race will be something we'll be discussing over the next few weeks. | |
| But the elected government, the government that was elected to protect Canadians in a very complex world, and the most recently elected in 2021, our government will continue to be focused on what's in the best interest of Canadians while the Liberal Party is doing what it needs to do to organize leadership race. | ||
| Thank you very much for being here in such great Ottawa Day. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington, D.C. to across the country. | ||
| Coming up Tuesday morning, Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center, discusses Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's resignation and the future of U.S.-Canada relations. | ||
| This as President-elect Trump prepares to take office. | ||
| And then the Mercatus Centers, Christine McDaniel, on President Biden's decision to block the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. steel by Japan's Nippon Steel and Trump trade and tariff policies. | ||
| Also, author and journalist Jonathan Alter, who wrote a biography of Jimmy Carter, talks about the former president's life and influence in American politics. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Tuesday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at cspan.org. | ||
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| Then, later in the day at 4:30 Eastern, a memorial service will be held for the former president at the U.S. Capitol. | ||
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