Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited the recent U.S. election results as an indication that “women’s progress is under attack” because of the loss of U.S. presidential-candidate Kamala Harris.
While speaking at an event hosted by Equal Voice Foundation, an organization that promotes female representation in politics, Trudeau warned that regressives forces were at play against women both “overtly and subtly.”
“It shouldn’t be that way. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. We were supposed to be on a steady, if difficult sometimes, march towards progress,” Trudeau told the event’s attendees in Ottawa on Tuesday evening.
He went on to say that he was a “proud feminist” and that he and his government will always be an “ally” that women can rely on.
“And yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States voted for a second time to not elect its first woman president. Everywhere, women’s rights and women’s progress is under attack. Overtly, and subtly,” he said.
The prime minister’s comments come just ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with the country’s premiers to discuss how Canada’s will approach the impending 25% tariffs on all exports south of the border.
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump pledged to impose tariffs upon taking office next month on all imports from both Canada and Mexico in response to loose border security.
Trudeau’s remarks also come on the heels of being jeered by Trump via social media, where he referred to Trudeau as being, not the prime minister, but the “Governor…of the Great State of Canada.”
Trump made the post in reference to a previous joke he’d made during a dinner with Trudeau at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida about Canada joining the U.S. as the 51st state if its economy could not handle the proposed tariffs.
Trudeau wasn’t the only politician speaking at Tuesday’s event, as both Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lanstman and NDP Leader Jagemeet Singh gave speeches as well.
The Conservative MP noted that Canada had become divided not in its goal of seeing more women elected to office, but because those who are elected, are expected to all hold the same political views.
“Most of all, I think we’re divided because we’ve placed diversity of thought on the backburner, in exchange for lofty platitudes of those who believe that all women who hold elected office have to have the same view on every single issue,” said Lantsman.
While Jagemeet Singh called for a change of course in “older white men” who he believes have continued to “fail upward.”
“I have seen, if I could be really blunt, I’ve seen a lot of older white men fail upward again and again,” said Singh.
“And that is just going to continue unless we actually try to change things. If you don’t change things, you’re going to have the same system. And the same system is going to benefit those already in power.”