The Speech Somebody Should Give

How To Thread The Needle Between Continuity And Change

(In September, when it became apparent nobody was going to knife the Prime Minister, I wrote a column with some suggested speech language for the PM to try and turn the tides. The column was well received and seemed to be a useful frame to think about the challenges of the moment. Now that the Prime Minister is gone, it’s worth doing again.

This is not intended for any specific candidate, but for any of the Trudeau ministers who will seek the leadership. Obviously if I were writing this for any specific person the details would be sharper, but I think the goal of this is to lay a path forward - acknowledging the failures, owning the successes, creating distance with the Prime Minister but not doing so in a way that seems inauthentic or bullshit.)

My fellow Canadians,

Obviously we are in unprecedented times yet again. We face the dual threats of a reactionary, unpredictable American President and a rising tide of conservatism here at home. We face these crises now in part because of our own failures, and in part a consequence of accidents of history and humanity. But we are here nonetheless, and I am putting my name forward to lead the Liberal Party and become Prime Minister.

I am genuinely proud to have served in this government, because no matter what mistakes and what failures we have made - and Lord knows there are decisions we all would make again - we have done so much legitimate good. We have slashed child poverty, we have made it worth it for parents to return to work after having kids, we have helped millions get dental coverage, we’ve ensured hungry kids get school meals, and we’ve helped seniors on the cusp of poverty stay financially secure.

We’ve managed to strike balances between employment and the environment, with the energy sector pumping more barrels of oil than ever while reducing emissions. We’ve ensured most Canadians get more money back than they’ve paid in the carbon tax, ensuring that what could have been a punishing blow to the poor and working class is a benefit. We’ve fought for manufacturing to return home, working with provinces to get companies to come here and employ Canadians in good, skilled work. And we’ve done so through incredible challenge.

The election of Donald Trump in 2016 was a huge crisis for Canada, and one that Justin Trudeau deserves huge credit for. A renegotiation of NAFTA wasn’t what we wanted, and it had every opportunity to blow up on us. Instead, we managed to strengthen the document and update it for the 21st Century without having to give away the farm on anything we actually cared about or having to take economic harm. It was a huge success, and as soon as we moved beyond that crisis more came.

The pandemic was a time of hell, plainly, a shock to the system that has had consequences. We were supportive of individuals and businesses and every day I walk through my riding I see businesses that would have gone bust if we didn’t spend whatever it took to save them. I’m so grateful that restaurants, bars, and other important places are still where they belong, and that people could come out of the pandemic with the world still resembling the one they left behind for lockdown. It’s an unpleasant reality that the consequences of those years of hell are still all around us.

Since then we’ve faced the threat of Russian aggression in Ukraine by increasing defence spending. It is currently up 40% since the Harper era lows, and we are on the path to 2% of GDP. We have led the fight to ensure that our allies in the democratic world are not abandoned. We have shown great resolve, and I’m honoured to have sat at the cabinet table that stood united.

But there have been mistakes, and we can’t ignore those. We’ve failed people - we’ve failed those without kids, we’ve failed the young, and we've failed those who don’t benefit from rises in house prices. We’ve failed them, and there’s no reason to claim we haven’t. It’s worthless to litigate whether the decisions we made at the time we made them were correct with the information we had, for a simple reason: defending ourselves doesn’t help anybody.

We got the various decisions around housing and immigration wrong for too long. We spent too much time in the majority years focused on helping first time buyers by giving them money to spend, and not by building more houses. Our decisions on the immigration file, especially in the post-pandemic years, exacerbated the problem. We let big business strongarm us into allowing them to make more money on the backs of immigrants and foreign workers, all the while making it harder for everybody to find a place to live for less than their entire paycheck. We should have said no.

We also should have done more on affordability. Instead of one off direct deposits whenever the political heat rose on us, we should have used that money on more structural, long term help. Tax relief for the middle class was one of our best accomplishments as a government, and we should have done more to extend that legacy and further lower rates for the working class. We also should have done more to fight against monopolies and anti-competitive policies. It’s often joked that Canada is less a country than 12 companies dressed up in a trenchcoat, but the problem with that joke is that it’s closer to reality than we want.

My vision for the future is informed not just by our successes but by our failures. The truth is there are lots of moments I look back on. I served this country because it means so much to me, but to serve in the Cabinet is not to blindly believe everything that every colleague proposes. It is to fight, to argue, to vehemently disagree behind closed doors, and then to come out as a unified force. I’ve won in those fights and I’ve lost plenty too, and every colleague past and present will be able to say the same. But it was worth it to serve even when I disagreed, because this country has given me more than I could ever ask for, and I could never live with the notion of turning down a chance to serve it.

The country deserves a leader who will stand up for what’s right, someone whose values are where the people are, and someone who can meet the moment. But they also deserve a leader who will not be inflexible and rigid in defending the indefensible. Every government and every leader will make mistakes. The mark of good ones is they know when to admit they’re wrong, and can move past them.

We need to recommit ourselves to ethical government, first and foremost. We need to strengthen the powers of the Ethics Commissioner and the Auditor General to ensure that the stench of insider politics, pay for play, and friends helping friends goes away. While I am heartened by the fact that the Prime Minister was cleared of any official wrongdoing in both SNC and WE, it is undeniable that Canadians are worried about the open door between politicians, corporate interests, and charities, especially charities that lobby the federal government and pay for trips for Parliamentarians. Strengthening oversight powers and ensuring they have the resources to hold us accountable are hugely important to draw a line in the sand.

We need to rethink the economic approach of this government. We have done a lot of good through redistribution and through targeted programs, at the cost of neglecting broader growth policies that can lead to a rising tide. Under my leadership we will seek to create a Commission of Audit, ensuring that tax dollars and federal spending is being as efficient as possible. Before we look for more deficit spending or tax rises, it’s fair for Canadians to be sure that the money they’re already paying is being spent wisely, and if it’s not, be put to better use.

We also need to strike the right balance between harnessing innovation, opportunity, and the new growth sectors in the economy while cracking down on the big end of town and those that stifle competition. We need to be a hub of innovative businesses and creative minds, and we need to give them a country worth investing in. We need to support small businesses that want to expand, we need to support workers who want to train and do more, and we need to attract foreign businesses worried about political and economic instability across the globe.

We need to continue to work to build more houses. We need to build on the work being done by Mayors and parties across the country to cut development charges and make it easier for developers to build the kind of housing that gives us choices and lowers prices. We need to build on the successes of the Housing Accelerator Fund, and the great work at making it easier for people who want to build more homes to do so. We need to work with cities, provinces, co-ops, First Nations, and more to use every tool at our disposal to rapidly solve this crisis before our failures complete decimate the generation trying to do the right thing and make a good start in life.

Most of all, however, we need to re-commit ourselves to the most basic of liberal principles, respect for the Jewish community. We have not done nearly a good enough job fighting against the vile acts of antisemitism that have rocked our country since October 7th. The conflict in the Middle East is complicated, and our response must meet the moment. But what is often lacking in our response so far is allowing that complexity to paralyze us here at home. Whether it’s fear of federal overreach, fear of political backlash, or just plain indecision, we have allowed our Jewish brothers and sisters to live in fear. Jewish day schools and synagogues are being attacked routinely, protestors shouting vile antisemitism in predominantly Jewish areas are allowed to continue indefinitely, and even when things turn nasty it oftentimes has taken us too long to stand for our values.

No matter your view on the conflict thousands of kilometres away, we mustn’t let that stand in the way of what we must do. Antisemitism is the oldest bigotry, a disgrace that must be diligently fought against at every turn. We mustn’t be worried about political games, we mustn’t reduce matters of such importance to badly done back of the envelope calculations about marginal seats. Under my leadership we will deny cities and provinces federal transfers if they do not meaningfully step up efforts to secure Jewish neighbourhoods and areas, give more protection to key cultural sites like synagogues and day schools, and present the Federal Minister of Public Safety a comprehensive plan to fight antisemitism within 30 days of my swearing in.

I know for some the legacy of my predecessor will never be shaken. I know some of you will never believe me when I say I am committed to being a different leader. Given the history of big promises to be better and different, I find it hard to blame you. That said, I am committed to it nonetheless. The country needs new leadership, and it can either be from someone committed to advancing the good works of this government while acknowledging realities and working to fix past failures, or from a leader so hellbent on partisan games he is willing to throw the baby, the bathwater, the bathtub, and the linen closet out just because the Liberals did it.

I hope to earn back trust, and to show Canadians what a Liberal Party that refocuses its efforts and learns from itself can do. It can be a fighting force for prosperity, freedom, and safety, and I hope to ensure that it is again.