 It is my sincere pleasure to be here with you this evening, and it's a great privilege and honor To receive this award. I am deeply touched by it When I was a boy, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet quite a few world leaders while traveling with my dad Something that struck me then and still does today is the reassuring humanity of those encounters However great or powerful a leader may be they are still just people and The majority that I have met I have to say with some gratitude Want to do what is right for their citizens and for the world If that weren't the case it would be a far grimmer world And it actually is The challenge of leadership indeed the very essence of it is To fairly balance the competing interests of different groups of people who have at times quite different aims and needs But sometimes events coalesce There are times when our principal aims and needs Become universal And I believe we are living in such a time right now Some might look at this council's half-century old mission to promote cooperation across the Atlantic as the rarefied concern of elites or an idealistic throwback to another century Well, nothing Could be further from the truth We live in a time Where global peace and security free and fair trade Human rights and liberty have never been more Intertwined or in this post-war era at greater risk and in greater need of our active focused engagement Alliances that have underpinned global security and prosperity since 1945 Are being put to the test And the urgency of the challenges we share in common climate change and drought Income inequality violent extremism Civil war and the mass migrations that result Continues to grow allow me to repeat that last bit in French for the folks at home Certain pourrait croire que la mission confié à ce conseil il y a demi-siècle soit celle de promouvoir la coopération des deux côtés de l'attentique Thelitiste ou qu'elle rappelle un idéal de notre siècle c'est faux nous vivons à une époque où la paix la sécurité mondiale les échanges commerciaux libre et équitable les droits de la personne et la liberté sont plus interconnectés que jamais Autrement dit dans cette période d'après-guerre ils ont jamais été autant en danger ils n'ont jamais autant eu besoin de notre engagement active et profond les alliances qui favorisent la sécurité la prospérité dans le monde depuis 1945 sont mises à l'épreuve et les défis auxquels nous sommes confrontés les changements climatiques et les sécheresse Inégalité des revenus l'extrémisme violent les guerres civiles et les migrations de masse qui en résulte sont de plus en plus urgent Worldwide the long established international order is being tested With Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and encroachment in Ukraine We have seen the first major territorial seizure in Europe since the second world war This is not the time for retrenchment It is a time for the Atlantic democracies to renew our commitment to universal standards of rights and Liberty enforced through a multilateral rules-based order that has promoted peace and stability and stood the test of time We have to work together on this Which means a renewed commitment to long-standing alliances such as NATO and NORAD Bodies such as the United Nations and the WTO Global security Requires the ability to project hard power when it is needed. That is one reason why earlier this year Canada announced a robust long-term Reinvestment in our military with significantly increased spending for the tools and training our women and men in uniform need To do their jobs the second major pillar of global peace and security is of course free and fair trade As you know As you may know as you hopefully know Canada is currently engaged with the United States and Mexico in Modernizing the North American free trade agreement We're working hard and we're looking forward to hosting our partners in Ottawa this weekend for round three And as you may have seen in the media, Canada has been very ambitious at these talks particularly in advancing a Progressive trade agenda that puts gender equality the rights of indigenous peoples environmental protection and labor standards squarely at the heart of the discussion now Some appear to have been confused by this It's as though they expect us to do trade exactly the same way it was done by our parents a quarter century ago And yet there is a precedent Sita Canada's groundbreaking trade agreement with Europe goes into provisional application in two days It is the most progressive trade agreement in the world today We made it that way for a reason trade as it has long been done though broadly positive for the majority Has not been perfect If it were there'd be no political current against globalization Yet there is such a current especially in places where traditional manufacturing has been disrupted by Automation automation and off-shoring So we need to do a better job of ensuring the benefits of trade Extend to the middle class and those working hard to join the middle class not just the wealthiest few We made a deal We told people that trade and the things that went with it would lift all boats would benefit everyone And people have been wondering when that benefit is going to hit the majority That's what we need to turn around We need to do more to help the people displaced by economic shifts So that they can get well-paying jobs and provide for their families a big part of that Is upholding labor rights not just in our own countries but worldwide And again that's an important bit so I'm going to repeat it for the folks at home The solution is to get well-paying jobs and to support the needs of their families The solution is to get a big part of that in the defense of labor rights Not just in our own country but worldwide In short, progressive trade is not a frill In addition to being the right thing to do It is a practical necessity Without which popular support for a growth agenda could not be maintained The third pillar of peace and security is the advancement of human rights Liberty and tolerance the very touchstones of our societies Although even the word tolerance is something that I like to think we can get past Because use the word tolerance in a sentence I tolerate that you exist Doesn't sound very warm I mean there's no religion in the world that says tolerate thy neighbor I mean there are places in the world where a little tolerance will go a long way But I think in countries like Canada and the United States and Atlantic democracies We need to move beyond putting up with each other Towards words like friendship, acceptance and yes love This is both morally necessary and practically vital Respect for others regardless of what they look like The language they speak, the God they worship or the person they love Makes it possible for the human family to get along And getting along makes it possible for humanity to survive In the 1980s when I was a teenager The fight against the apartheid system in South Africa dominated the global conversation Canada through its leadership at the Commonwealth Played an important role in helping coalesce world opinion in opposition to apartheid Now we need to be every bit as strong every bit as vigilant in opposing the scourges of racism Sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ethnic and religious bigotry, neo-fascism, neo-nazism And the violent extremism of Daesh that confront us in 2017 We cannot waver It would be unconscionable to take even one step back In upholding the standards of decency Of the sisterhood and brotherhood of the human family That won the day in the most painful struggles of the last century Many of you here in this room remember those struggles We must not relive them and this brings me back to where I began The thing we begin to realize when we appreciate that all leaders are human Is that nothing is guaranteed That the global order that our grandparents and parents built isn't cast in stone It can change for the worse or as I prefer to think for the better But in order for this to happen Our definition of what constitutes leadership or who gets to be a leader needs to broaden Every person here is a leader Every citizen in the choices they make The things they choose to say or to not say To do or not do To teach their kids or not teach is a leader It's not just every vote that counts It's every choice that counts So I'll leave you with this Let us be good leaders Let us be the best leaders we can possibly be Together let's roll up our sleeves And let's get on with the tough entirely achievable Vitally necessary work of leaving this world a better place than we found it Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less