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Charlottetown, P.E.I.
I want to talk to you tonight about the Liberal vision for the future of our country.
We’re going through more than a recession—it’s a fundamental restructuring of the global economy.
We’re in a new world—
Where fossil fuels are expensive.
Carbon has a price.
Brain power and intellectual property drive our economy.
And the markets of the future are in China and India, not just the United States.
This is the world our children will grow up in. A world where the job you get depends on brain-power and education. We need a government that’s smart enough—that cares enough—to make those jobs a reality. Here in Canada. Here in P.E.I.
A government that plans for the future, instead of just scheming for its own re-election.
A government as compassionate, creative, competent and courageous as the Canadian people.
You know what I’m talking about.
A Liberal government!
Instead, we have Stephen Harper.
A man who loves power, but doesn’t believe—as we all do—that government has a positive role to play: bringing us together, creating hope and opportunity for all of our people.
Politics is really all about the future—who offers Canadians the better vision.
Stephen Harper is a man without a vision.
Look at his last budget. This was our chance to invest in the jobs of tomorrow, in opportunities for our kids—instead Stephen Harper spent it on party favours.
Here in Charlottetown—Wayne Easter will tell you—they put up a big blue stimulus sign in front of the RCMP “L” Division building, all because they’re replacing the doorknobs.
Think of it. We’re in the worst recession in decades, and the best Stephen Harper can do is doorknobs. And I’m not even talking about his Cabinet.
We’re running the biggest deficit in history and what do we have to show for it? Doorknobs.
With Harper, you get half the leadership at twice the price.
He’s all cheques—and no balance.
And what about those promises of his?
He promised not to tax income trusts.
Promised not to raise payroll taxes.
Promised not to appoint senators.
Promised not to run a deficit.
He broke them all. There isn’t a promise he won’t break to stay in power.
Here in P.E.I., Gail Shea broke her promise to help the lobster industry.
Well if Gail Shea won’t keep her promises—to retire lobster licenses—we’ll have to retire her.
Les autres pays préparent l’avenir. Ils investissent aujourd’hui pour créer les emplois de demain. Ils investissent pour développer le savoir et le savoir-faire de leurs citoyens.
Other countries aren’t standing still. But Stephen Harper is.
In the U.S., President Obama is putting six times more per capita into clean energy and research than the Conservatives.
Canada has invested less in renewable energy per capita than the State of Alaska.
So when it comes to clean energy, Stephen Harper isn’t just behind Barack Obama. He’s behind Sarah Palin.
A few days ago, I announced our Liberal strategy to tackle climate change, protect our lakes and oceans, our forests and watersheds.
It’s an ambitious program and it gives Canadians a clear choice.
The Conservatives say you have to choose between the environment and the economy.
We Liberals know that’s a false choice—that if we invest in green technologies and energy efficiency today, we create the jobs of tomorrow.
Stephen Harper can’t get us those jobs. We can. We will.
Another example: the digital economy.
In 1997, we were the first country in the world to connect all our schools to the internet.
Now we rank twenty-eighth out of thirty major economies in terms of broadband internet speed and cost. Twenty-eighth. Only Mexico and Poland are worse.
We’ve got to hook up every rural, remote and northern community in Canada—so we can build opportunity in every region.
If Stephen Harper won’t do it, we will.
We’ve had four years of cheap politics. And it’s come at a cost.
Lost opportunity. Lost time. And a growing gap between the wealthiest few and the rest of us.
Because there’s a country’s worth of stories that Stephen Harper isn’t telling.
Lobster fishermen here in PEI and across the Northumberland Strait in New Brunswick.
Pork producers having to sell their farms.
Forestry workers watching mills and plants close in northern New Brunswick, Quebec, and northern Ontario.
Manufacturing workers watching the jobs go across southern Ontario.
These are hard-working Canadians who have never known unemployment before.
They don’t know if they’ll ever work again, if they’ll ever see a pension, if they’ll be able to put their kids through college or university and give them opportunities they never had themselves.
These Canadians matter to the Liberal Party. They matter to me.
I was out in Richmond, B.C., last week. I talked with seniors who can’t afford rent. We thought we beat senior poverty in the 90s. This recession brought it back.
Don’t let them tell you we’re out of this recession either. We still have tough times ahead. We can’t allow tough times to leave us weaker and more divided, meaner as a people.
We Liberals want to bring Canadians together, not drive them apart. We need to unite our country with compassion, so we can move forward with confidence. Together.
That’s the kind of leadership only Liberals can provide.
This party believes in government as nation-building, and we have the record to prove it: Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the best public finances in the world.
Together with our fellow citizens we built the country we love—and we won’t let Harper take it apart.
That’s why I knocked on doors for Mike Pearson. That’s why I organized for Mr. Trudeau.
I’m in politics for the same reason as you: to renew a great tradition, to defend Liberal values, to serve our country, and lead Canada to its brightest days.
People ask what we’d do differently.
It starts with learning—with giving every child an equal chance.
No matter who you are, or where you live, or what you have, your kids should have access to world-class early learning and childcare.
We’ll invest in our universities and colleges—not just for students, but for the researchers and innovators whose ideas will fuel the next generation of our economy.
And we’ll build a learning society that harnesses the talent of every single Canadian—, rural and urban, east and west, north and south from every background and every region of the country.
We’ll do it by lifting the cap on Aboriginal education.
By investing in rural broadband, cell coverage, and connectivity.
Tackling the literacy gap that holds back so many Canadians.
Providing language training for new Canadians so everybody speaks the language well.
Providing skills training for our workforce so no older workers get left on the shelf.
And the most significant investment in clean-energy jobs in Canadian history so our industries are competitive and our kids have great jobs.
That’s how we’ll rebuild our economy—so that we can strengthen the social programs that tie us together as a country—the pensions and healthcare we want to count on for ourselves and for our children.
That’s what we Liberals believe: we’re here to create security, hope and opportunity for every Canadian. No one gets left out. No region gets left behind. We’re all in this together.
It’s not for nothing they call us the party of national unity. That’s our special genius: we unite Canadians, we give our people the sense that we belong to a common enterprise, proud Islanders yes, but even prouder Canadians.
That’s the kind of leadership only Liberals can provide.
Leadership means thinking big again. Restoring Canada’s ambition.
2017 marks the 150th anniversary of our federation. We need to ask ourselves: What kind of country will we be? What kind of country can we be?
Next March, in Montreal, the our party is going to bring together some of the country’s brightest minds and ask:
What kind of Canada do we want in 2017—and what we need to do today and tomorrow to get there?
But the meeting in Montreal isn’t the whole story. I’m going to hit the road in January and listen to Canadians right across the country about the Canada we want to be.
Because millions of us are looking for a government as full of hope and optimism about the future as the Canadian people themselves.
Our goals as a party are clear. Our vision is clear. We deserve a government that sets out to make Canada the best educated, the healthiest, the greenest, and the most international society on earth.
These are goals worthy of a great people. And these are goals we can achieve.
We’ve done it before.
And together, we will do it again.
Thanks for listening.