Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that Kamala Harris’ loss in the U.S. presidential election was a setback for women’s progress, saying women’s rights were under attack by “regressive” and “reactionary” political forces. He cited several recent incidents that suggest that this is the case.
In a speech at the Ottawa gala for Equal Voice, a group that works to elect more women to public office, Prime Minister Trudeau called out politicians who are hostile to women’s rights, especially women’s right to choose abortion. “Unfortunately, we win too often,” he said. She said feminists like herself must be “lucid” about the challenges ahead.
“We were supposed to be making steady, if difficult, progress toward progress, and yet, just a few weeks ago, the United States announced for the second time that it would not elect its first female president,” Trudeau said. “We voted,” he said, adding, “We have a female president.” ‘Rights and women’s progress’ are ‘under attack’.
“And I want you to know that I am and always will be a proud feminist,” he said. “You will always have allies in me and my government.”
“Women’s rights and women’s progress are under attack, both overtly and subtly, everywhere,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday, speaking at the Equal Voice Foundation gala in Ottawa. Ta.
The comment could be interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on US President-elect Donald Trump. In his first term, President Trump appointed Supreme Court justices bent on overturning abortion jurisprudence, which he ultimately accomplished with Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.
Harris’ defeat in the November election disappointed Americans who had hoped to see a woman in the Oval Office for the first time.
The comments come at a tense time for relations between Canada and the United States.
President Trump recently mocked Prime Minister Trudeau on social media, calling him the “governor” of Canada’s “great province.” He said if the U.S. has a large trade deficit with Canada, it might be better to join the United States. Trump also appeared to joke with Prime Minister Trudeau that Canada would become the 51st province if he failed to meet his promised tariffs.
Prime Minister Trudeau said Canada is preparing a response if President Trump imposes a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods destined for the United States, which last time Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. In response, Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. products.
Prime Minister Trudeau also attacked Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poièvre on Tuesday, who was not present at the Equal Voice event.
She said the other federal leaders in attendance, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, have consistently shown up for women.
“It’s important to show up,” Prime Minister Trudeau said, noting his government’s commitment to women’s rights, its commitment to a gender-balanced cabinet, and its prioritization of female candidates for judicial and senate appointments. ” he said.
He said 56 per cent of the Liberal government’s elected judicial officers were women, up from 32 per cent under the previous Conservative government, and women now had a majority in the Senate.
Trudeau said having more women in power has led to policy changes such as government childcare subsidies, a gender-based violence strategy and a pharmacy program that will eventually include contraceptives. Ta.
Poièvre said he is pro-choice and supports a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Prime Minister Trudeau said the Liberal Party “not only believes in a woman’s right to choose, but we will act on it.”
Conservative Party Deputy Leader Melissa Lanzmann attended the event and gave a speech.
Lanzmann attacked Trudeau without mentioning Trudeau by name, saying some leaders lean into “high-minded platitudes” and that “all women in elected office are the same on every issue. He said that they are degrading women by imposing the idea that they must have their own opinions.
“I have seen women in my party rise to positions of great responsibility, not because of quotas, but because of merit, excellence and intelligence,” she said.
She said the focus on gender-balanced cabinets and token policies was “pandering and degrading”.
“It has to be more than just a symbol. It has to be about real substance. It has to be real consequences for real people,” she said, adding that in recent years It noted an alarming increase in sexual assault and human trafficking.
