Nov
25
(2006)
Justin Trudeau Speaking at the U of C
Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: future, podcast, politics, weblogs.ucalgary.ca.
I just checked in on weblogs.ucalgary.ca, and was greeted by a wonderful surprise. Justin Trudeau was on campus on Friday November 24, and the full audio of his talk was posted to weblogs.ucalgary.ca as a podcast. I’ve grabbed the file, and have listened to the first couple of minutes, but this should be a great talk.
For anyone who doesn’t recognize the name Justin Trudeau, he is the son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and is making quite a name for himself as both a public speaker and leader of youth activism.
I’m really interested to hear his thoughts on Quebec as a “nation” as well as his take on what we can do to address environmental issues. (my own take on the Quebec “nation” issue is that it only acts as a divisive instrument - instead of what we need, which is something that is unifying)
This is the kind of thing I’m hoping we can put into a itunes@UCalgary service, once we get that off the ground. For now, it’s hosted on our weblogs service.
Comments
5 Responses to “Justin Trudeau Speaking at the U of C”
I think that the Quebec issue has and is always meant to be divisive. I think separate cultures and identities may very well need their own nations as identity is something much more complex than simply food or even language. Quebec’s elite know this and want to push their culture upon the people who live there. But this whole thing is far from over, the Bloc is going to continue to push for a completely separate country and the West is going to see it as a cue to put more pressure on Ottawa for autonomy. This was a great short term maneuver by Harper, but in playing this game he’s lost the values of his party and instead is essentially maneuvering to gain more power — or so he thinks… It’s a smart political move at the cost of essentially values that Canadians, and especially the conservative party should hold. He thinks by simply saying a nation within the greater nation of Canada solves the problem — far from it, and he’s simply too short sighted to see it, or doesn’t care as long as he wins.
What blew me away was watching CBC Newsworld’s coverage of the issue, where they had 2 professors from Montreal on to discuss it. They were suggesting that there’s really another nation WITHIN Quebec, of the “real” Quebeckers. It’s not enough to just live in the province. You’ve got to be from a certain lineage to be Quebec-worthy. They didn’t come right out and say it, but it sounded like they were suggesting there is a distinct nation within the nation of Quebec.
I think it’s all complete bs. They say they are a nation because of the work they put into building Canada in the first place. 1) It was their ancestors, not them. 2) They weren’t alone. Is there a nation of Ontario? Western Canada? etc… Bollocks. Divisive nonsense.
The best post on the issue is at Calgary Grit. Nation of Calgary? Why not?
FYI…The Justin Trudeau audio file link has been changed to http://weblogs.ucalgary.ca/msimpson/podcasts/2006/11/27/justin_trudeau_speaking_at_the_u_of_c
Thanks for the update, Mark. I grabbed a copy before the URL was changed. It was a really good session. I loved the question from the little girl, even if it was contrived/staged.