Two months after taking office, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is still riding high atop his wave of popularity. Some highlights from the interview transcript are below, and you can watch the full interview in the player above.
Even as he walks through Torontoâs historic Distillery District on his way to an interview with ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝âs Lisa LaFlamme, people begin to gather:
LISA LAFLAMME: I can see wherever you go thereâs a crowd following you.
JUSTIN TRUDEAU: There is a level of interest and engagement in what weâre doing.
I mean I donât think these kids are thinking, this guyâs got great policies. I think theyâre saying, this is a cool young prime minister.
I think it would really surprise me if they didnât think, okay, you know what, the right kinds of things are being done in a way that we like.
That woman who just said to you, âThank you for the hope.â Wow, I can just imagine the responsibility attached toâ
See, but I say that to Canadians all the time. Whether I say it explicitly or implicitly to myself, people are coming at me with extremely high expectations, but with a positive hopefulness that quite frankly I think is going to be essential to getting the country to where we need to be.
But when, you know, selfies with kids and putting kids winter boot on, sitting with a kid on Parliament Hill, hand shaking with world leaders -- do you feel that you're always on?
No more than when I was a high school teacher having to be on for the class of 30 kids that I taught. No more than Iâve been aware that I was my fatherâs son all my life and therefore people would come to me with a certain awareness or attention.
Some things donât feel like governing -- for example, the Vogue cover.
Iâm always looking at reaching out to people in a variety of ways. And we know that not everyone peers at the political pages attentively in the newspaper. And engaging in a broad range of publications is something that Iâve always done.
And Iâm a little surprised at how offended some people are about, âOh, but itâs a fashion magazine.â
One of the things about all of this outreach has been what I think was a remarkable image to see the prime minister basically in the middle of the night at Pearson International Airport welcoming the refugees. Why was that so important for you to be there that night?
You know, itâs been as you said a busy couple of months for us. We've done an awful lot of things in the first month that actually really matter.
But when I was standing there watching that first family come towards me, I sort of realized, wow, we did this. Canadians asked me to do this and I did this.
The refugee resettlement policy has changed. I mean you sat across from me after the election and said 25,000 people here before New Yearâs Day.
Well I mean it changed in that 25,000 now by the end of February. So itâs a little longer. The convincing element to me was after the Paris attacks I realized that there was an increase in fear.
Anxiety and public perception could mean that these families might have been obviously welcomed, but also a little bit feared. And I didnât want that. We wanted to remove that entirely.
Your immigration minister used the number 50,000 and I wonder what the feeling is for potential refugees coming in. Germany by the way has just hit at one million.
I think doing more is important and certainly 25,000 as a kick start to the whole system was necessary. But ongoing, Canada needs to do more, and a lot of how we do will depend on how successful we are at integrating this first wave.
Do you have a benchmark in your head though of a number?
Not really. Iâm very much focused on doing what we can in the right way. Canada wants to both be part of the solution but also showcase how more countries can do more, particularly our neighbours to the south.
As you say the tone in Canada is so dramatically different to whatâs happening in the United States thatâs largely because of the comments by; by Donald Trump and the oxygen he has taken up on this anti-Muslim stance.
How much damage do you think heâs done to the overall dialogue?
I like to try and take a longer view of this. I mean thereâs no certainty that heâs going to even end up the Republican nominee, let alone the president.
But, you know, sometimes it takes voices like that to shake everyone back to some semblance of perspective and reality.
Your relationship with Barack Obama seems very solid except for the decision to pull out of the air war. Twice now he stood up, addressed his nation, twice now he has not mentioned Canada.
Do you see that as a rebuttal to your decision to pull the CF-18s out?
No. I mean I had a conversation with him on the day after I got elected in which I highlighted that and he said he understood that I made commitments.
I reassured him that we will continue to be a strong member of the coalition including engaging militarily.
What are some of the things if you can tell us now that we will be doing?
Our Minister of Defence is thoroughly engaged in this, looking at how we can be supportive in concrete ways that will make a difference and help our allies and help in the fight against ISIL in very, very solid ways. But there also needs to be smart humanitarian and refugee elements folded into that.
You say that Obama is fine with your decision to pull out of the air war. Does he know something we donât know on what our contribution will be?
No. He simply said, as you announce that you are pulling out the jets, make sure that you're announcing how you're going to be stepping up so there isnât a propaganda win for ISIL. So people understand that Canada continues to be a strong player in the coalition.
What do you think when youâre wandering around without a coat on in December?
I think weâre getting a broader range and variation of weather. I mean tying too closely together weather to climate, itâs always worrisome, but thereâs no question that there are more irregular events.
I mean we could be under eight feet of snow and that might be a result of climate change as well.
So you donât attach anything to this mild December day?
Oh no, no, I wonât call it global warming, but I will say that this is an example of the unpredictable weather patterns that weâre now facing.
Youâve endorsed this goal to lower the global temperature. Such an ambitious target. How is this going to be enforced?
Having had an agreement at which all the countries of the world came together and recognized that this is a massive problem and a massive priority but also an opportunity. An opportunity to think differently how we create strong economies that are in synch with the natural world that are resilient to the changes that are going to come to climate change.
This is a very, very clear statement that we are all in this together.
What does it do to the oil sector in this country?
We see the big oil sands companies are already heavily investing in renewables and looking for diversification. At the same time, they're being very innovative around reducing their emissions, around being more and more mindful of the impact on the environment.
Itâs the trend we have to go in. We have to make sure that we're supporting that transition and enforcing it at the same time.
This is an abridged transcript of Lisa LaFlammeâs interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on CTV.
Watch âA Conversation with the Prime Ministerâ to hear Trudeau speak about the economy, electoral reform, the senate and more.
