Young orator.
Justin Trudeau, son of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Liberal MP for the riding of Papineau, Que., is the special guest speaker during the Phoenix Centre’s annual general meeting June 10.
Steve Newman
His dad, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, attracted huge audiences.
He was one of Canada’s most popular prime ministers, but he also attracted
opposition for other decisions, like his evoking of the War Measures Act during
the October 1970 FLQ Crisis.
Justin Trudeau wasn’t alive then, but he has gone on to
become a teacher, a father, a politician, as well as an appealing speaker.
He was certainly the latter June 10.
Trudeau, 34, received a positive response from the student
body at Renfrew Collegiate Institute. And he received more of the same that
morning from a group of about 100 people attending the annual general meeting
of the Phoenix Centre, at the Best Western Renfrew Inn.
The irony of today’s society, said the parent of two young
children and the Liberal MP in the Quebec riding of Papineau, is that the
24-hour news cycle has not empowered people, especially youth. Often, he says
youth feel overwhelmed, disempowered and unimportant, largely because of the
size of today’s global society.
Standing in the Best Western’s conference room wearing a
grey suit, tieless white shirt and sockless shoes, he said today’s challenges
aren’t small.
The Liberal Party’s opposition critic for youth and
multiculturalism, said: “We are facing a planet that is challenged on a scale
and (is) a type we’ve never had to deal with before.”
The global sense of society is underlined, he said, by the
reality of knowing one’s underwear comes from Malaysia,
lithium batteries from Tibet
and juice from South America. And the future
isn’t necessarily as bright for today’s youth as it was for the previous
generations of young people, he argued, meaning we may have to rethink what we
take for granted.
At the same time, he said the world needs people who act,
react, and pro-act with long-term activities in mind that will help the world.
As we look at everything changing around us, Trudeau said
“we need to avail ourselves of the dreamers … who aren’t afraid of challenge …
who aren’t caught in their comfortable rut (like many adults).”
He acknowledges young people haven’t figured our their
groove yet, but suggested they might not if older members of society don’t start
showing youth that they matter. He says young people get a bad rap for being
disconnected and cynical, and admits they are from time to time.
THEIR VOICE ISN’T HEARD
But he says they’re also frustrated because their voice
isn’t heard. Is it any wonder, said Trudeau, that young people aren’t much
interested in politics, that only one in five in the 18-to-25 age category,
actually vote?
That’s not their fault, either, stressed Trudeau.
“When I talk to young people, it’s very clear the fault
doesn’t lie with them, but the fault lies with politics, with politicians.”
The reality, added Trudeau, is that we can’t “cookie-cutter
our kids anymore … that the paths to contributing to society are going to be so
varied and so unique to every individual.”
Furthermore, Trudeau emphasized that being a consumer
doesn’t necessarily make one a productive member of society. “A productive
member of society,” he insisted, “is someone who creates … is someone who has
things to offer that go beyond the products that we have to sell or buy.”
And why not have those things come from all citizens,
including youth, since “our greatest resource is the hearts and minds of
Canadians themselves.”
“We will,” he added, “only succeed if we manage to draw the
very best out of every single individual.”
That comes with the help of good parents. When asked whether
his father’s iconic reputation was empowering or disempowering on him, the
guest speaker didn’t miss a beat.
Demonstrating a sense of humour, he said there are pressures
because of his dad, “but it really depends on where I go,” because in some
places people have unbelievably low expectations.
To which he added: “The one thing I will be eternally
grateful to my parents for is both of them were very well-focused on giving me
the tools to be the best me … My father never expected me to go into politics.
My mother prayed most of her life I would never go into politics.”
Now that he has, he says, “There has to be a legitimate and
serious mechanism whereby young people get a voice.”
One of the students in the audience, Aleck Charkavi of
Pembroke, said he found Trudeau’s talk “inspirational. I get what he’s saying
because I understand when he talks to us. He doesn’t talk to us like
lower-class people.”
More importantly, the 17-year-old, who is toying between the
careers of poet and physiotherapist, said Trudeau’s talk told him that “I
shouldn’t try to be what I’m not. Be my own person and strive to be what I want
to do in life.”
Ron Parker, the Phoenix Centre president for 2009-10, was
also impressed.
Asked what he took from Trudeau’s talk, he replied, “Our
children are our most precious and important asset, and they need a place in
decision-making today so they can create dreams that turn into policy and
opportunity for the future.”