Pubdate: Mon, 18 Aug 2014
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Mark Kennedy
Page: A8

'GOING TO STAY FOCUSED'

Trudeau Says He Won't Be Side-Tracked by Those Who Say He's Too Lightweight

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he's not worried about the 
negative perceptions of him spread by his opponents and believes he 
has always been under-estimated as a politician.

Trudeau made the comments in an interview with the Citizen, during 
which he spoke about the economically squeezed middle class, why 
marijuana should be legalized, and what it was like growing up as the 
son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. The interview took place 
before a weekend break-in at Trudeau's Ottawa home in which an 
intruder or intruders left what has been described as a threatening note.

"All my life, I've dealt with people who have their minds made up 
about me before ever having met me or actually engaged with me," said 
Trudeau. "I don't spend a lot of energy worrying about what people 
who are determined to dislike me or knock me down have to say about me."

Instead, said Trudeau, he's intent on meeting Canadians and trusting 
their judgment.

"I'm going to stay focused on bringing forward solutions to 
Canadians, talking with them about the big issues and demonstrating 
that I have the strength of my convictions.

"So when someone criticizes me because they don't think I'm smart 
enough or serious, it doesn't bother me, it doesn't affect me. I 
simply focus on doing what I can with all the tools that I do have, 
and they are considerable, to contribute to the world in a positive way."

Trudeau said that as a politician he has consistently outperformed 
expectations: winning a Liberal nomination in a Montreal riding where 
"everyone wrote me off;" winning the two federal elections that 
followed in that riding; emerging as the victor in a charity boxing 
match where he was considered the underdog against Sen. Patrick 
Brazeau; and not falling "flat on my face" in the 2013 party 
leadership race he won.

As he gears up for the 2015 election, comparisons are also being made 
to his father and whether he can replicate the "Trudeaumania" that 
swept Pierre Trudeau into office as prime minister in 1968.

Justin Trudeau, who spent more than a decade of his early years 
living at 24 Sussex Drive, spoke about the effects of that and "the 
pressure that I put on myself. I had an extraordinary example in a 
father who dedicated himself to building a better country, building a 
better world, and being a great dad at the same time."

Many years after Pierre Trudeau left politics and his health was 
deteriorating before his death in 2000, Justin decided to sit down 
with his father to ask some important questions.

"I realized it was possible that I would end up in politics one day. 
And I'd never actually had a sit-down conversation on politics with 
this giant of Canadian politics. And how angry at myself would I be 
if years from now I realized I never actually learned anything from 
my father around politics." He asked his father about how to resist 
lobbyists, and the former prime minister "sort of" gave an answer.

"It was a really awkward conversation. Until I realized that 
everything he had taught me about being a good person, a good 
citizen, a good dad, was also what he was teaching me about being a 
good politician.

"There wasn't any trick to it, or secret, other than to be a good 
person and to be serious about serving the community with everything 
you have. And to make the right decisions, not the easy decisions."

In recent months, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative 
government has pointed to several incidents - for example Trudeau's 
musings about why Russia invaded Ukraine, an offhand statement about 
how budgets balance themselves - as proof that he is not qualified to 
be prime minister.

The Tories have also used Trudeau's position on marijuana 
legalization to launch attack ads and circulate flyers that claim the 
Liberal leader plans to make it easier for children to obtain marijuana.

In fact, Trudeau said his plan is to keep pot out of the hands of 
kids. He said young people are finding it "easier to buy a joint than 
it is to buy a bottle of beer. And that's wrong.

"Our current approach is not working. We are failing to protect our 
kids from the effects of marijuana.

"And you can say all you like about how it might not be as bad as 
alcohol or nicotine. But the fact is we want to keep marijuana out of 
the hands of the developing brains of our teenagers."

In the United States, marijuana for recreational use went on sale in 
Colorado Jan. 1 and Washington followed suit this summer.

Trudeau says a Canadian system of controlling and regulating pot 
would make it harder for young people to buy and would keep profits 
from going to organized crime and street gangs.

"And we free up the justice system and police resources from 
criminalizing something that honestly is maybe not good for you but 
shouldn't be a focus of interfering with adults' freedom to make 
their own choices."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom