{"id":21218,"date":"2018-07-26T14:36:43","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T18:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21218"},"modified":"2018-08-01T16:51:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T20:51:25","slug":"canada-didnt-happen-by-accident-and-wont-continue-without-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/canada-didnt-happen-by-accident-and-wont-continue-without-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cCanada didn\u2019t happen by accident and won\u2019t continue without effort\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Canadians can solve the problems we\u2019re facing by pulling together, even when faced with challenges south of the border, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
\nThe strength of coming together was the message Mr. Trudeau delivered to a large group of supporters at a fundraiser held in Aurora on Friday evening. The fundraiser, held at the Royal Venetian on Industrial Parkway South, was also attended by a number of area MPs, including Leona Alleslev (Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill), Kyle Peterson (Newmarket-Aurora), and Deb Schulte (King-Vaughan).
\nIt was the end of a very busy day for the Prime Minister, which included a number of York Region stops, including one in Markham where he announced the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) has increased to keep up with the cost of living. Mr. Trudeau announced the CCB would be indexed to inflation earlier this year at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex, a point that was not lost on the PM.
\n\u201cThe last time I was in Aurora, I was at a hockey rink and spent a little time on the ice with a whole bunch of kids and I got to talk to some of the parents about the impact the Canada Child Benefit has on their ability to buy new equipment, on their ability to fund after school activities, their ability to invest in their kids\u2019 futures, in a very positive way,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat that has led to over the past year has been we have the highest growth rate in the G7. Canadians across this country have a little more confidence in where we are going.\u201d
\nWhen the Federal Government brought in the CCB, Mr. Trudeau said one of the main criticisms the program faced from experts was without it being pegged to the cost of living, the monetary benefit each family received would lower with each passing year. It was a criticism he said his government heard but, at the time the program was introduced, the economic situation was such it was thought to take four years before they could index it.
\nThe economy, however, has been \u201cgoing well\u201d, he said, enabling them to bring indexing forward.
\nMr. Trudeau\u2019s speech at Friday\u2019s $500-a-head fundraiser laid out his vision for next year\u2019s Federal election.
\nHe used the example of the CCB to poke holes in the views of critics that Federal Government under Justin Trudeau was \u201ca government of image and not substance.\u201d
\n\u201cTell that to the hundreds of thousands of kids who have been lifted out of poverty,\u201d he said. \u201cTell that to the nine out of 10 families who are getting more money every month tax free to raise their kids. Tell that to the millions of Canadians who have a tax cut because we lowered taxes to the middle class. Tell that to the seniors for whom we have increased the Guaranteed Income Supplement by 10 per cent, almost $1,000 for our most vulnerable seniors. Tell that to the young people who don\u2019t have to start paying back their Canada Student Loans until they are making $25,000 a year in a stable job. Tell that to the millions of Canadians who have benefited from our historic investments in infrastructure right across the country over the past two and a half years. These are the things that actually matter to Canadians and actually shape not just confidence in our government but it is in the future we are building together. That is what this government has been doing.\u201d
\nThis sense of continued nation-building as a collective was a common refrain within his speech, acting as a precursor to a \u201cpositive\u201d campaign ahead.
\nMr. Trudeau said the Liberals won government in 2015 through a belief a \u201cpositive, inclusive campaign\u201d in which they refrained from mudslinging and attacking opponents and, instead, focusing on bringing people together instead of \u201cplaying up the politics of fear and division.
\n\u201cIf we can demonstrate that we can go from a distant third place to winning government through the politics of positivity, then we change politics in Canada, and no one ever would think negativity, nastiness and attacks is the way to win government. That is what we told ourselves, and you know what? We did it, we won government by staying positive,\u201d said Mr. Trudeau, before turning his attention to the Conservative opposition.
\n\u201cThe Conservatives didn\u2019t learn their lesson,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey still think the way to win government is to scare Canadians, it is to divide Canadians, to pit one region against another, one community against each other, to talk down our economy, to talk down our capacity to succeed as a company. I guess we\u2019re just going to have to show them once again that the power of positivity, of bringing people together, of saying, \u2018yes, we\u2019re facing big challenges, but we can solve them together,\u2019 that any old fool can point fingers and lay blame on this person or that group, or that region, for causing our problems. It takes real leadership and it takes the kind of conviction we see amongst Canadians to pull together and say, \u2018We can solve these challenges together, we have faced down bigger problems than this before, bigger challenges on a global stage than this, how we have succeeded and will succeed again.\u2019 And the only thing we need to do is stay focused and united.\u201d
\nThis unity, he added, will be important when facing trade challenges from the United States.
\n\u201cCanada didn\u2019t happen by accident and won\u2019t continue without effort. That effort is not so much the government\u2019s, it\u2019s Canadians themselves. The responsibility we have as a government is to empower and encourage Canadians to succeed, to give them the tools to [realize] their dreams and create better opportunities for their kids, their grandkids, and their neighbours. That\u2019s the thing we have always done, that\u2019s the thing we have understood is happening when we come together, when we recognize that diversity is a source of strength, never a source of weakness. And the resiliency that comes with people rolling up their sleeves and working side by side is the one thing that is going to guarantee that our future will be better even than our glorious past.
\n\u201cIf I can thank you and all Canadians right now for the way we have pulled together in this latest challenge with the United States around tariffs. We will continue to stand up and be there for Canadian workers in the steel and aluminum industry. We lean on each other, we\u2019re there for each other, and we have got each other\u2019s backs. That is what I need you to do over the coming years. Continue to have each other\u2019s backs, continue to put forward a positive, inclusive vision of Canada, continue to point out that even with everything we have done, better is always possible and together we\u2019re going to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister talks unity, trade challenges at local rally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/2018-07-26-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5we","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 11:04:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}