Vancouver, British Columbia

Fellow Canadians. Fellow Liberals.

Thank you, Bob.

Thank you, Dominic.

Thank you Mona and Yasmine.

Thanks to all of you.

Three thousand Liberals in one room is a pretty inspiring sight.

We better get this show on the road. The puck drops at 6 o’clock and remember—we are all Canucks tonight!

You have done me a great honour.

I will do everything, I will give everything for you and for Canada.

You have done me a great honour. You have given me a great responsibility. I will try to be worthy of your trust. I will give this job everything I’ve got.

We meet in Vancouver as a united party. United in conviction, in resolve, and in shared belief that our hour has come.

You can see the unity of our party on your faces, full of hope and cheer.

You can see our unity in our diversity.

We are the party of francophones and anglophones, of rural and urban Canadians, of new Canadians and of those who were born here, tous ensemble.

All Canadians are represented in this hall: rural and urban, east and west, north and south, men and women from the farms and factories, the big cities, the small towns, the remote regions of this awesome country we call home.

Our party has always united Canadians.

We are the big tent of Canadian life, where all find welcome and all can be sure their voice will be heard.

If you are watching today and haven’t joined a political party, join us. You will get a warm welcome.

All of you, whether you are in this room or watching at home, I want to invite you to join us. I need you. Canada needs you.

We are here to rededicate ourselves to the central task of our party: to offer our people the uniting vision that will inspire us all to better days.

Our country is our cause.

We know that Canada is more than ten provinces, three territories and five regions.

More than a mixture of ethnicities.

We are more than the sum of our parts.

We are one great people.

We are not two solitudes.

We are one great people.

Together since the beginning and together forever.

And our party’s vocation is to strengthen the spine of our citizenship and to deepen the pride we feel for Canada on the world stage.

We are meeting at a time of trial in our national life.

There are Canadians watching us who do not know if they will ever work again.

Canadians who fear that the retirement they saved for is vanishing.

Canadians who feel hope has abandoned their car dealership, their small business, their family farm.

We must send them the message—

We are living this with you.

In Opposition, we are fighting to protect you.

In government, we will lead you back to prosperity.

This recession is shaking our world.

But we will meet its challenge with Canadian courage. We will turn crisis into opportunity.

Friends, I am confident that if we offer our fellow citizens a message of hope, they will ask us to form their next government.

When they do, all our efforts will be focused on one task: To unite our people again.

To make them feel the strength that comes when Canadians know they are acting together.

The road back to prosperity may be long, but we know which way will get us there.

It is the Canadian way.

Liberals understand the Canadian way.

We know that economic recovery cannot be purchased at the price of leaving anyone out in the cold.

We know that economic recovery means unlocking the creativity of every citizen.

That’s the Canadian way.

The Canadian way means social solidarity and the inclusion of all.

To unite our people, to treat everyone fairly while this crisis lasts, we need a common national standard of eligibility for Employment Insurance.

But that’s just the beginning.

A strategy for recovery must be a strategy for learning.

Investing in Canadians to create the jobs of tomorrow.

Government cannot predict where the economic opportunities of the future will emerge.

But government can prepare our people to seize those opportunities when they arise.

We must create a society where learning is a way of life and learning is life-long.

A knowledge society—where what counts is what you know, not who you know.

A knowledge society – where learning creates hope and opportunity.

A knowledge society—where every child gets an equal start with world-class early learning and childcare.

Where women get equal pay for work of equal value.

Where every student who gets the grades gets to go—to the best higher education in the world.

That means every Aboriginal child gets a world-class, not a second-class education.

And no Canadian struggles with the burden of illiteracy.

And no disabled Canadian faces obstacles that prevent them from giving their best.

A Canada where every unemployed person can get the training they need.

A Canada where every new Canadian has the chance to work hard and achieve their goals, like my father did.

A Canada where our researchers and scientists know that their governing is supporting them, not undermining them.

A Canada where every creator, artist and filmmaker knows that their federal government will do everything to help them succeed on the international stage.

A Canada where hope and opportunity take root again in our farming communities, our small towns, our northern and remote regions.

The way out of this slump is hard, but the direction is clear.

In the union hall, in the lecture hall, in the concert hall, wherever one Canadian is teaching another to do something they never thought possible, far-sighted government must be there to provide the resources to help everyone realize their full potential.

I’ve seen what learning can do in the constituency I have the honour to represent, Etobicoke-Lakeshore.

Six students at Humber College decided, for a class project, to communicate with the astronauts on the International Space Station. They begged and borrowed, worked flat out for months and when they succeeded in talking to the astronauts hurtling through space, you could see the astonishment on those young Canadian faces.

They had surprised themselves. They had done something they didn’t think was possible.

If you ask what I want for Canada, it is this: that we surprise ourselves. Astonish ourselves. That we astonish the world.

I know that we can realize our dreams, but on one condition. Our workforce must be the best in the world, and our researchers must be the best.

If we achieve this goal, the green technologies our planet needs will be invented right here in Canada.

As they are doing right now at the University of Victoria, at the Venus and Neptune Programme. It’s the only place in the world where scientists are laying sensors on the ocean floor to map seismic change and variations in ocean temperature. The country that leads in ocean science today will lead in green jobs tomorrow.

What we have learned at home, we can teach the world.

In the 1990’s, I reported on the ethnic wars in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. I worked in countries torn apart by hatred.

I witnessed the disintegration of nations and I came back to Canada convinced that our national unity is worth every effort.

When I came home I realized that in a world ravaged by hatred, we remain a light unto the nations.

This is the moral purpose of our country: to teach tolerance, diversity and citizenship to a troubled world.

We respect our differences. We accept our identities. We do not impose one single brand of patriotism. We let our citizens decide. Be a Quebecer, be a Canadian, be both in whichever way seems right to you. That’s the beauty of Canada. It’s our example to the world.

The Canadian way is a way for the whole world.

I learned this when I was a war reporter in the former Yugoslavia.

I had just crossed a checkpoint guarded by two Canadian peacekeepers, when I was arrested by a group of paramilitaries and thrown into a van. They were waving weapons around and they were about to drive off when a hand reached in through the window, yanked out the key and a Canadian voice said: We’ll do this my way.

That peacekeeper—from Moncton, New Brunswick—did it the Canadian way.

The Canadian way is not the easy way.

You ask us to do something hard. We will not let you down. A Canadian will never let you down.

We are good allies, neighbours and friends.

We are a serious people. We keep the peace, and if there is no peace to keep, we will fight for our freedom and yours too.

We are the people of Vimy Ridge, Juno Beach and the deserts of Kandahar.

We are a competent, courageous, co-operative and creative people.

We need a government as competent, courageous, co-operative and creative as the people themselves.

They deserve nothing less.

You can feel a longing for change sweeping across the land.

A longing for a new politics that replaces spite and spin with civility and common purpose.

A longing for us to lead rather than follow on the world stage.

A longing for us to come out of this crisis more competitive than ever.

A longing for us to be the most adventurous and entrepreneurial people on the planet.

Our task in Opposition is to frame that longing in a platform of action.

Our task in government will be to turn that platform into reality.

We can do that, but I need your help.

I want to speak directly to the man who stands in the way of that change.

I want to speak directly to Stephen Harper.

For three years, you have played province against province, group against group, region against region, individual against individual.

When your power was threatened last November, you unleashed a national unity crisis and you saved yourself only by sending Parliament home.

Mr. Harper, you do not understand Canada.

You have failed to understand that a Prime Minister has only one job: to unite Canadians.

Mr. Harper, you have failed us.

If you can’t unite Canadians, if you can’t appeal to the best in us, we can.

We Liberals can build a federalism based on co-operation, not on confrontation.

We can do politics differently, with civility—speaking frankly, but respectfully.

We can make our people the best educated and most entrepreneurial on earth.

We can.

As we approach 2017, our country’s 150th birthday, let us dare to dream, but let us also dare to act.

We will dream together, and yes, we will act together.

Let us get back to the Canadian way.

We are more than the sum of our parts, and we deserve a government that does not make us feel any less than a great people.

A great people with a great future.

And to a great people, given great leadership, nothing is impossible.

Merci.