Justin Trudeau at UN: ‘We’re Canadian. And we’re here to help.’

For the record, the prepared remarks for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who made his first address to the UN General Assembly on Sept. 20.

Good afternoon.

Mr. President, fellow delegates, and friends. It is an honour to be with you today.

And it’s wonderful to be here in the great city of New York. Once again this week, New Yorkers showed us how to be resilient and resolute in the face of violent extremism.

On behalf of everybody in this room, let me say directly to the people of New York: you are a model to the world. And we thank you.

Exactly one year ago, Canada was in the middle of a long and closely fought election campaign. 78 days on the road. And I can assure you: in Canada, we do have 78 days’ worth of roads.

It is the responsibility of a leader to spend time with the people they were elected to serve.

If you want the real stories, you have to go where people live. Coffee shops and church basements, mosques and synagogues. Farmer’s markets. Public parks.

It was in places like that that I got the best sense of what Canadians were thinking, and how they were doing. And through the politeness – because we Canadians are always polite, even when we’re complaining – I learnt some things.

I talked with people my age who were trying to be hopeful about their future, but found it tough to make ends meet, even when they were working full time.

I heard from young Canadians who were frustrated. Who told me that they couldn’t get a job because they don’t have work experience, and they couldn’t get work experience because they don’t have a job.

I heard from women and girls who still face inequality in the workplace and violence just because they are women, even in a progressive country like Canada.

J’ai rencontré des parents qui travaillent fort pour donner à leurs enfants toutes les chances de réussir, mais qui ont peur que leurs efforts ne seront pas suffisants.

Et j’ai eu l’occasion de partager des repas avec des aînés à la retraite qui ont travaillé fort toute leur vie et qui sont maintenant forcés de se rendre dans des banques alimentaires.

J’ai eu trop de conversations troublantes avec des Canadiens au cours des dernières années. Mais elles ont mis quelque chose au clair pour moi.

Les Canadiens croient encore au progrès. Ou du moins, que le progrès est possible.

Mais cet optimisme est mêlé à beaucoup d’inquiétude.

Évidement, les Canadiens ne sont pas les seuls à se sentir comme ça. Ces sentiments sont présents partout. Cette anxiété est une réalité.

When leaders are faced with citizens’ anxiety, we have a choice to make.

Do we exploit that anxiety or do we allay it?

Exploiting it is easy. But in order to allay it, we need to be prepared to answer some very direct questions.

What will create the good, well-paying jobs that people want, and need, and deserve?

What will strengthen and grow the middle class, and help those working hard to join it?

What will build an economy that works for everyone?

What will help to make the world a safer, more peaceful place?

To allay people’s anxiety, we need to create economic growth that is broadly shared, because a fair and successful world is a peaceful world.

We need to focus on what brings us together, not what divides us.

For Canada, that means re-engaging in global affairs through institutions like the United Nations. It doesn’t serve our interests – or the world’s – to pretend we’re not deeply affected by what happens beyond our borders.

Plus tôt cette année, nous avons aidé à négocier l’Accord de Paris sur les changements climatiques. Dans le cadre de notre engagement à sa mise en œuvre, nous avons annoncé que le Canada investirait 2,65 milliards de dollars sur cinq ans pour financer la croissance propre et à faibles émissions de carbone dans les pays en développement.

Dans le but d’aider à promouvoir la paix et la sécurité dans des zones touchées par l’instabilité, nous avons réaffirmé notre soutien à l’OTAN, en plus de s’être engagé à accroître le rôle du Canada au sein des opérations de maintien de la paix des Nations Unies.

Et nous avons accueilli la 5e Conférence de reconstitution des ressources du Fonds mondial où nous avons augmenté de 20% notre contribution ont donnerons de plus de 800 millions de dollars au Fonds mondial. Et nous avons aussi encouragé nos partenaires à accroître leurs contributions, ce qui a permis d’amasser 13 milliards de dollars pour éliminer le SIDA, la tuberculose et le paludisme d’ici 2030.

We’ve done all this–and will do much more—because we believe we should confront anxiety with a clear plan to deal with its root causes.

And we believe we should bring people together around shared purposes like the UN Sustainable Development goals.

Because what is the alternative?

To exploit anxiety?

To turn it into fear and blame?

To reject others because they look, or speak, or pray differently than we do?

You see, in Canada we got a very important thing right. Not perfect, but right.

In Canada, we see diversity as a source of strength, not weakness. Our country is strong not in spite of our differences, but because of them.

And make no mistake: we have had many failures, from the internment of Ukrainian, Japanese and Italian Canadians during the World Wars; to our turning away boats of Jewish and Punjabi refugees; to the shamefully continuing marginalization of Indigenous Peoples.

What matters is that we learn from our mistakes, and recommit ourselves to doing better.

To that end, in recent months, Canadians have opened their arms and their hearts to families fleeing the ongoing conflict in Syria. And from the moment they arrived, those 31,000 refugees were welcomed – not as burdens, but as neighbours and friends. As new Canadians.

Cet effort a rassemblé les Canadiens. D’une façon presque sans précédent, le gouvernement a travaillé avec des gens d’affaires, des citoyens engagés et la société civile pour aider les nouveaux arrivants à s’adapter à leur nouveau pays.

Mais nos efforts ne seront vraiment réussi qu’une fois ces réfugiés bien établis et membres à part entière de la classe moyenne canadienne.

Et je veux que vous sachiez que cet objectif est à notre portée – non pas en raison de ce que nous avons fait, mais bien en raison de ce qu’ils sont eux-mêmes.

You see, refugees are people with the same hopes and dreams as our own citizens.

But where while our people have felt anxiety, Syrians faced catastrophe.

Do you want to know where Syria’s middle class is?

They’re living in refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan.

They’re moving across Europe, looking for a place to set down roots, get their kids back in school, find steady work, and be productive citizens.

Refugee camps are teeming with Syria’s middle class. Doctors and lawyers. Teachers and entrepreneurs. They’re well educated. They work hard. They care about their families. They want a better life – a safer and more secure future for their kids – as we all do.

So when I say that I hope that the Syrian refugees we welcomed will soon be able to join our middle class, I am confident that we can make that happen.

And we’ll do it by offering to them the same things we offer to all our citizens – a real and fair chance at success.

Nous allons tout faire pour bâtir une classe moyenne forte au Canada.

Nous allons investir dans l’éducation, parce que cela apporte à la prochaine génération les outils nécessaires pour contribuer à l’économie mondiale et pour réussir.

Nous allons investir dans les infrastructures parce que ça crée de bons emplois bien rémunérés pour la classe moyenne et contribue à faire de nos communautés de meilleurs endroits pour vivre, travailler, et investir.

Nous sommes déterminés à bâtir une économie qui fonctionne pour tout le monde – pas seulement pour le 1% des plus riches – de façon à ce que chaque personne bénéficie de la croissance économique.

Et nous allons refuser de céder à la pression d’échanger nos valeurs profondes pour des votes faciles. Le monde s’attend à plus de notre part, et nous nous attendons à plus de nous-mêmes.

In the end, my friends, there is a choice to be made. Strong, diverse, resilient countries like Canada didn’t happen by accident, and they won’t continue without effort.

Every single day, we need to choose hope over fear, and diversity over division.

Fear has never fed a family nor created a single job.

And those who exploit it will never solve the problems that have created such anxiety.

Our citizens, the nearly 7.5 billion people we collectively serve, are better than the cynics and pessimists think they are.

They want their problems solved not exploited.

Listen, Canada is a modest country. We know we can’t solve these problems alone.

We know we need to do this all together.

We know it will be hard work.

But we’re Canadian. And we’re here to help.