Catholics From Canada

"Our celebration of difference needs to extend to differences of values and belief, too. Diversity includes political and cultural diversity. It includes a diversity of perspectives and approaches to solving problems. See, it’s far too easy, with social media shaping our interactions, to engage only with people with whom we already agree — members of our tribe. Well, this world is and must be bigger than that. ... To let yourself be vulnerable to another point of view — that’s what takes true courage. To open yourself to another’s convictions, and risk being convinced, a little, or a lot, of the validity of their perspective."

"The Trans Mountain expansion is a vital strategic interest to Canada − it will be built."

"My heart goes out to the young girl who was attacked, seemingly for her religion. I can’t imagine how afraid she must have been, I want her and her family and her friends and community to know that that is not what Canada is, that is not who Canadians are… We are better than this."

"Gender equality is not only an issue for women and girls. All of us benefit when women and girls have the same opportunities as men and boys—and it’s on all of us to make that a reality. Our sons have the power and the responsibility to change our culture of sexism, and I want Xavier and Hadrien—when he’s a little older—to understand that deeply. But I want, too, to help them grow into empathetic young people and adults, strong allies who walk through the world with openness, love, and a fierce attachment to justice. I want my sons to escape the pressure to be a particular kind of masculine that is so damaging to men and to the people around them. I want them to be comfortable being themselves, and being feminists—who stand up for what’s right, and who can look themselves in the eye with pride."

"Canada is an opening and welcoming society, but let me be clear. We are also a country of laws."

"Every time there was a big transformation, whether it was the Industrial Revolution and the steam engine, there was this worry that there were going to be no more jobs. ... But I think at the same time, looking at a delay that might have happened 100 years ago or 200 years ago is different from understanding that the pace of change is so rapid that if we start, and we tool up our workforce to be more flexible, more open, more skilled in seeing where the opportunities are, we’re going to be better positioned than anyone else in the world. I’m not saying there’s not going to be disruption. [But] we’re doing well because we are back investing in the kinds of things that are making a difference in people’s lives."

"It's an old idea from the 19th century. It is something that is not relevant to the vibrant, extraordinary, culture that is Quebec as Quebec is an amazing part of Canada. Nationalism is based on a smallness of thought that closes in, that builds up barriers between people, and has nothing to do with the Canada we should be building. It stands against everything my father ever believed."

"To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada"

"I’ve said many times that there isn’t a country in the world that would find billions of barrels of oil and leave it in the ground while there is a market for it."

"I think that everybody should be in the business of improving opportunities for women and girls. We need women and girls to succeed because that’s how we build stronger, more resilient communities. It’s how we grow a stronger economy. Encouraging the full participation of women and girls in public life and in the business world leads to better decision making all around. ... It’s not just about women’s issues, it’s about everyone’s issues. We know that if kids grow up in an equal world, it is a better world — more open, more prosperous, and more peaceful."

"We should be past tolerance in Canada .. In Canada, can we speak of acceptance, openness, friendship, understanding? It is about where we are going and what we are going through every day in our diverse and rich communities .. Tolerating someone means accepting their right to exist on the condition that they don’t disturb us too, too much."

"The North American idea that diversity is strength, is our great gift to the world. No matter where you are from, or the faith you profess, nor the colour of your skin, nor whom you love, you belong here. This is home."

"Canadians are shocked by tonight's attack in Nice. Our sympathy is with the victims, and our solidarity with the French people."

"ISIL would like us to see them as a credible threat to our way of life, our civilization. We know Canada is stronger, much stronger, than the threat posed by a gang of murderous thugs who are terrorizing some of the most vulnerable people on earth. Call us old-fashioned, but we think that we ought to avoid doing precisely what our enemies want us to do. They want us to elevate them, to give in to fear, to indulge in hatred, to eye one another with suspicion and to take leave of our faculties. The lethal enemy of barbarism isn't hatred. It is reason. And the people terrorized by ISIL every day don't need our vengeance. They need our help."

"Because it's 2015."

"Before Duplessis died, we’d all go to church and make our sign [of the cross], and a year later we didn’t go to Mass any more. So we looked for another set of values, one that was all-enveloping, like the Church."

"If I never read a business page, my admiration for him would be complete."

"Over the last 40 years, talking about Duplessis has become like talking about the devil himself."

"The saying goes that after the death of every great man there's a long period of ingratitude. I find Maurice Duplessis's period is lasting pretty long."

"The period leaves no one indifferent. And that was our goal. We present the facts. It's up to the public to decide."

"This is about an admitted attempt, encouraged from outside, to challenge and break the State's authority. That is intolerable. Whoever deviates from this policy that I have established, privately or publicly, will be expelled from the Union Nationale."

"Less than fifteen cents to the province and more than twenty-five cents to Ottawa, this is far from being excessive!"

"[Ed Grimley] lives in a retirement home in New Jersey. It's called the Retirement Home in New Jersey for Characters Who Were Interesting in the '80s for About an Hour. He's there with the Whiners, Gumby and Jon Lovitz's 'That's the ticket' guy."

"When my dad died at the end of my sophomore year [at university], I stopped and took stock of my life. There was this real sense that my childhood was officially over. I decided I wanted to be an actor. I knew I was loved as a kid. The thing you can always rely on, your core person, comes from your family's attention and love. When my mother got sick, and I'd see her fight to survive, it gave me an early view of bravery and what life was about. I was able to prepare for it. Your mother dies, and you're eighteen, and you face a choice. Are you going to take drugs? Become a drunk? Or are you going to try to become more spiritual? Why not go with the thing that seems more positive? [pause] Why do I tend to be optimistic? Because the alternative is just crushing to my soul."

"It's the bane of existence for anyone in comedy. 'The photograph must be funny!' So the people coordinating the shoot throw rubber chickens at you, 20 at a time. Or put a feathered hat on you. Or give you a clown nose. Of course, all of this makes you depressed, so you wind up looking more like you're promoting A Long Day's Journey Into Night."

"I'm totally aware of how lucky I am. I have health, family, children. I do work that gives me total joy and allows me to make a living, and maybe, if I'm lucky enough, I'll feel I've fulfilled a little bit of service to society because I brought other people some laughter."

"I truly believe that when you're funny, you're blessed. Your whole life is kind of golden. I was happy, although it was not perfect happiness. There was illness and sadness and death."

"I look around this room and see a room full of senators, maybe one or two judges. A Conservative government will give jobs to people in other parties only after I've been prime minister for fifteen years and can't find a single living, breathing Tory to appoint."

"Fifty years from today, Americans will revere the name, 'Obama.' Because like his Canadian predecessors, he chose the tough responsibilities of national leadership over the meaningless nostrums of sterile partisanship that we see too much of in Canada and around the world."

"All this nonsense going on, the guy [Jean Chrétien] just swallows himself whole on NAFTA, nobody says a word. It's just been an awful bloody piece of business. Only a mean, dirty bastard would do something like that, or a fucking stupid one. And you know what? He's both."

"Go bang the window and see what happens -- just test it. See that? Trudeau had the office bulletproofed. I always contended that the reason he did it was because the American embassy is right outside. They probably wanted to shoot him."

"Look, when I did the Free Trade Agreement, I didn't know how it was going to turn out. I thought it was the right thing to do. I believed it was the way of the future. If you looked at it in the new millenium, you would say this was so obvious that it had to be done. Without it, Canada would be small and atrophied. The Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA will be regarded one hundred years from now as a major defining moment in the evolution of Canada. The New York Times did a big article in the financial section on NAFTA and they basically said, the United States and Mexico might have a little trouble with this, but, boy, Canada sure doesn't. Canada has emerged the true winner on everything."

"It's pretty hard to tell somebody who won 211 seats the first time out, having started way behind, and then 169 the next time out, that he can't do it a third time against Jean Chrétien, Preston Manning and Audrey McLaughlin. Give me a break."

"Peter Newman: Go frack yourself. Thank you. Good night."

"Your book is going to be such a bestseller because it's a colorful, astonishing story. It's absolutely unbelievable. The publishers don't have to worry about whether this thing is going to sell. The only question they're going to have to wonder about is whether they've got enough paper in the forest to print the fucking books. That's all they have to worry about. I'll tell you this, if there ain't a good book in this, there's not a good book in Canadian history. So there you go. I don't know about other books, but boy this one's going to sell. I mean the others, you've done okay, but I'll tell you, you're going to be able to retire for sure. If this thing holds, it's going to be quite remarkable. I'd be very surprised, Peter, if by the time it's all over if there weren't two books in this thing for you. Let's let the books go out first, and then do the television."