PM TALKS COMMON GOALS WITH U.S.

‘People want a fair shot at success’

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested Wednesday that Donald Trump was propelled to the presidency in part by a sense among voters that too many citizens were not sharing in America’s prosperity.

Trudeau went further to say that his own government is seized with that same issue. With just a few words, Trudeau hinted at what could become the framework for a new Ottawa-Washington relationship, the single most important relationship Canada has in the world.

Trudeau spoke with Trump on Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s Office said in an email. The two men stressed the importance of the relationship between the two countries and Trudeau invited Trump to visit Canada. Trump extended the same invitation to Trudeau, the PMO said.

“The fact is we’ve heard clearly from Canadians and from Americans that people want a fair shot at success,” Trudeau told 16,000 high school students gathered in the Canadian Tire Centre.

“People want to succeed. People want to know that themselves, that their families, that their kids, that their grandkids will be able to succeed and we need to work together to get that,” Trudeau said in his first public comments about the U.S. election. “We share a purpose, our two countries, where we want to build places where the middle class and those working hard to join it have a chance. We need governments focused on service and that’s what we’re going to keep doing.”

Trudeau watched the U.S. election unfold with his family at his official home at Rideau Cottage in the nation’s capital.

His office issued a statement about the U.S. election early Wednesday morning but his appearance at the WE Day rally was his only public discussion of the results on Wednesday.

“First of all, the relationship between Canada and the United States is based on shared values and shared hopes and dreams. And we will always work well together. We are strong because we listen to each other and we respect each other,” Trudeau told the students.

David MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, said Trudeau and Trump both campaigned on the idea of lifting those who felt left out into the middle class. He said that common goal could be the basis for the yet-to-beestablished relationship between the two leaders.

“Absolutely,” MacNaughton said on a conference call with reporters. “I think there’s common ground there.”