 Prime Minister, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and friends. As you know, the theme of this annual meeting is mastering the force industrial revolution. I couldn't imagine anybody who could represent more the world which will come out of this force industrial revolution. It certainly will be a world, hopefully, not certainly, hopefully if it takes the right decisions, which will be a diverse world characterized by plurality. It will be a world which will combine significant investments into the future, into our soft and hard infrastructure with fostering entrepreneurial activity, at the same time social responsibility. It will be a young world, it will be a digital world. Now who could represent such a world better than you, Prime Minister? We are very glad that at the beginning of this meeting you are talking to us. To represent also a new, open Canada, I want to use this opportunity also to thank our Canadian constituency, which always has been a very loyal and very much engaged constituency here at the Forum. But now I think with you, together with our constituents, Prime Minister, we can make sure that in the future we strengthen the cooperation even more with your country. Prime Minister, we are very much looking forward to listen to you and actually the discussion will be moderated by my friend Fareed. So we will have some exciting, interesting moments. Thank you. Thank you, Professor Schwab, for your warm welcome and for bringing this impressive group together. I would like to take a moment just off the top to recognize a founder of the World Economic Forum and a great Canadian, Maurice Strong, who passed away just a couple of months ago. Maurice showed incredible leadership on a variety of issues facing the world today, in particular, early and compelling leadership on climate change. I would like to all remember him for a moment. Today we are gathered here to contemplate whether we are in the stages of the fourth industrial revolution about to begin. Instead of breathtaking possibility, that is, steam power changed the world utterly. So did electricity and, more recently, computers. And now we may be on the cusp of change equal in magnitude and of a far swifter pace. New technology is always dazzling, but we don't want technology simply because it is dazzling. We want it, create it, and support it because it improves people's lives. If we didn't build the public infrastructure in the early 20th century to support math electrification, only the wealthy would have had heat and running water. And with that, the creation of the middle class, the base of resilient economies, would never have happened. Technology needs to serve the cause of human progress, not serve as a substitute for it or as a distraction from its absence. Simply put, everybody needs to benefit from growth in order to sustain growth. It's not hard to see how the connections between computing, information, robotics, and biotechnologies could deliver spectacular progress. It's also not hard to imagine how it could produce mass unemployment and greater inequality. The technology itself will not determine the future we get. Our choices will. Leadership will. I believe in positive, ambitious leadership. I don't believe leaders should prey on the anxiety of the disenfranchised. Leadership should be focused on extending the ladder of opportunity to everyone. On pursuing policies that create growth and on ensuring that growth produces tangible results for everyone. Positive leadership creates a virtuous cycle. The more results we achieve for people, the more we grow the middle class and create real chances for those working hard to join the middle class, the more people will grant you a license for further ambition. We need to trust citizens. We need to give people the tools and ability to help them succeed. The fourth industrial revolution will not be successful unless it creates real opportunities for the billions who weren't able to join us here this week. In Canada, we get this. We need education to enable people to learn, think, and adapt. We need infrastructure that supports change. We need policies that encourage science, innovation, and research. We need societies that recognize diversity as a source of strength, not as a source of weakness. And we need governments willing to invest in making all that happen while recognizing the dynamic innovation that happens in the private sector. Just look at Silicon Valley. It crackles with ideas and experimentation. Diversity is a major reason for Silicon Valley's creativity. Its engineers and entrepreneurs come from all over the world. Each brings a different perspective, and when those diverse ways of seeing and thinking come together, they spark creativity. Diversity fosters new ideas. New ideas generate the experimentation needed to make the most of the fourth industrial revolution. And diversity is something leaders can do much about. Recently, a New York Times reporter asked the president of Y Combinator, a major Silicon Valley startup funder, if any one school stood out as a source of graduates with sparkling new ideas. He said, there's one. It's the University of Waterloo. Canada's University of Waterloo. Why does a Silicon Valley entrepreneur look to Waterloo as a great source for brilliant minds and brilliant ideas? Well, it has high intellectual standards, of course, and it values entrepreneurship. But diversity is its indispensable ingredient. Waterloo's students come from everywhere. Fully half of the graduate engineering students are international. And the University of Waterloo's domestic students are drawn from Canada's student population, one of the most diverse in the world. Now, many of you have reached out to me recently in thanks for Canada's compassionate response to the Syrian refugee crisis. But let me tell you something. When I welcomed those first families to Toronto last month, I welcomed them as new Canadians and as the future of the Canadian economy. Diversity isn't just sound social policy. Diversity is the engine of invention. It generates creativity that enriches the world. We know this in Canada. Frankly, our recent election reminded us all that people can respond to a positive, inclusive vision of society. The result is creativity that enriches Canada and the world. We know this, frankly. That makes me profoundly optimistic and confident. My predecessor wanted you to know Canada for its resources. Well, I want you to know Canadians for our resourcefulness. I'd bet that almost all of you have Canadians in leadership positions in your company. Now, you might not know this because we don't often shout it from the rooftops. Some cliches about Canadians are true. But in fact, when you think about it, I know that at least half this room has employed Dominic Barton at one point or another. We have a diverse and outstandingly creative population, a great education and advanced infrastructure. We have social stability, financial stability, and a government willing to invest in the future. And we are willing to work very, very hard to succeed. Our natural resources are substantial and there will always be so. Our natural resources are substantial and there will always be so. And there will always be a basis of the Canadian economy. But the Canadians also know fully well that growth and prosperity is not just a matter of what lies under our feet, but rather what lies between our ears. The recent election in Canada showed that the Canadians understand that confident countries invest in their future. Nowadays, one would say that the level of confidence worldwide is crumbling. Some even say that it is impossible to change the face of inequalities in the world because we have come too far to turn back and to invest in collective prosperity. Others insist to say that climate change is a lost cause. They maintain that catastrophe is unavoidable and the only way to avoid it is to give up economic growth. Others question diversity. They maintain that people of different culture and language simply cannot live together in harmony and that diversity is synonymous with instability and insecurity and that diversity is dangerous. Now I don't believe in this at all. We can grow the middle class so that those who study and work hard and save will be rewarded. We can fight climate change without sacrificing growth and prosperity. In fact, our global push towards a low carbon economy will produce new companies, new growth and new prosperity. And yes, we can embrace diversity and the new ideas that spring from it while simultaneously fostering a shared identity and shared values in safe, stable communities that work. The one thing certain about the next industrial revolution is like the three that preceded it. It will bring enormous change. And if you are looking for a country that has the diversity, the resilience, the positivity and mostly the confidence that will not just manage this change but take advantage of it there has never been a better time to look to Canada. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr Prime Minister. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now taping this for my CNN show. So it is completely imperative that you turn your phones off, your iPads, all those things that you rely on for 20 minutes you are going to have to deprive yourselves. Mr Prime Minister, I urge you not to break out into French. The last time I did French seriously was at the Sorbonne many years ago. I will not be able to keep up with you. Are we good? I just wanted to check with the cameras. All right. Mr Prime Minister, you campaigned on the idea that you are going to do deficit spending to build infrastructure, that you are going to reverse Canada's denial on climate change issues and embrace an active climate change policy despite the fact that Canada is a major oil producer, a new inclusion policy for aboriginals in Canada, tolerance even in the face of terrorism. There's this remarkable moment I remember in the campaign when there was talk about Prime Minister Harper said, one should strip Canadians who are affiliated with ISIS off their citizenship. And you said, no, you disagreed with that because you didn't think the government should have the power to determine who is a Canadian or not in that fashion. So I guess my question is, how on earth did you get elected? I spent the past eight years as a politician having honest, open conversations with Canadians in which I listened an awful lot. And from a young age, I had the opportunity, while my father was Prime Minister, to travel across the country and meet with people and listen to people and understand the values, the positivity, the optimism that underscores Canadians worldview. So in this election, at a time where so much has been made about the power of attacks and politics, of strategic division, of negativity as a powerful motivator to get people out to vote, we decided that by presenting a positive vision, not only if it worked out would we be able to get elected, but we would then have the kind of strong and inclusive mandate to provide a positive and good government for Canadians. So our focus on this was very much, let's bring forward who Canadians are and want to be instead of focusing on what we're scared of. And I think that has served us in good stead. But you notice that around the world, in every Western country almost, you have the rise of a nationalist, even nativist, protectionist, political movement that is often gaining ground to almost an unprecedented degree. Why is Canada different? Well, I think it comes down to a conception of what you think leadership is all about. I mean, every person has competing instincts in us. We're good people. We want to be good. We want to be nice to our neighbors. We want to be open and respectful of everyone. But at the same time, we know that there are scary things in the world and we need to be careful and protective. And the question around leadership is, which one do you build on? Which one do you enhance? And yes, we've seen it's very possible to get elected through playing up divisions and negativity. And that happens that it's a tried and true path. One of the things that I feel is that once you get elected through dividing people, it becomes very hard to then govern responsibly for everyone. And you can't just keep scaring people and hope to move the world forward. So the choice we made was to try and call on the better angels of people's natures to use a great Lincoln line. Let's believe that we can be better and give people the tools and create high expectations. And so far, we've done well. Do you worry that if there are a few more terror attacks, like the one in Paris, of course, like the one that took place in Canada itself, it will be difficult to maintain your policy of tolerance and inclusion and the welcoming of refugees? You've already slowed that down slightly. I think people are open to not choosing to live in constant fear. There are terrible things in the world, terrible people who want to attack are free and open societies. And we have to make a choice about how much we're going to close and limit and crack down within our societies in order to protect it. Because if you do that too much, you lose part of the free and open nature of society. And I have a tremendous level of confidence in ordinary people who go through their lives, don't think a lot about politics, don't think a lot about terrorism, think a lot about their families, about their job, about their future, and about their community, and want to see things work in the right way. And yes, one of the primary responsibilities of any government is to keep its citizens safe. But one of the other primary responsibilities is keep us free and true to our values and getting that balance right in a responsible way as opposed to a way that raises fears and anxieties is, I think, what people are looking for. And in your message to Parliament, it was not entirely clear to me whether you have decided for sure that you are not going to participate in the airstrikes against ISIS. So tell me clearly, will Canada withdraw its fairly limited participation and why? Canada recognizes that we need a global concerted response to the war on terror, to terrorists specifically. And Canada has an important role to play on a humanitarian side, on a refugee side, and yes, on the military side as well. We continue to be committed to be part militarily of the coalition against ISIL. We have committed, however, to end the airstrikes portion of our military involvement in exchange for another way of military involvement, probably around training and such things that can help local troops bring the battle directly towards terrorists. What's the logic behind this? The logic behind it is basically that Canada and countries in the world should look at where their competitive advantages are, where they do things very, very well. And over the past 10 years, this is not to take anything away from the excellent fighter pilots that we have in Canada. But over the past 10 years, Canada developed a tremendous level of expertise in training, in intelligence on the ground, in Afghanistan, for example. And we definitely have much to contribute on the helping local militias and local troops be more effective in the direct fight. And if there's one thing that recent history has taught us is that ultimately conflicts like this need to have their resolution on the ground with people who live and want to take their countries back from terrorists. Your opposition says you're a classic big government, tax and spend liberal. What do you say to that? I admit that I am someone who does think that government has an important role to play in setting the frame for success and making sure that we have opportunities for entrepreneurs, for individuals to succeed. I believe that government has... I don't believe that government should do everything, but I think the things that a government should do, it needs to do efficiently and well. My predecessors went out of their way from time to time because they believed that government was bad to deliver bad government. I don't think that serves anyone. So I believe in fiscal responsibility, and I quite frankly, I think liberals who believe that government should be doing things well and should be doing certain things are more motivated to therefore do them well, do them responsibly, not go into massive debt and deficit the way certain other governments who have been less motivated to deliver good government have. In your message to Parliament, conservatives say you never once mentioned the private sector. On the contrary, I continue to talk about how important growth and innovation in the private sector is, how we encourage young people to become entrepreneurs, how we increase the ease of doing business in Canada. We're already one of the top countries in the world when it comes to ease of doing business. We're competitive in our tax rates. There is a tremendous opportunity to invest in Canada, and I keep talking, including forums like this one, about our financial, our social, our political stability, our access to markets, the great resources, the great human resources, the diversity we have. We need to be drawing in more investment to Canada, and that's what I'm excited about talking about. Do you think that the collapse in oil prices is going to make it difficult for you to pursue your agenda? Canada is, after all, a natural resource power. I think one of the things that we've seen in the past, not just from previous Canadian government, but from governments around the world, is this idea that there's an either or between the economy and the environment that you have to pick one and what's good for the economy necessarily marginalizes the environment or vice versa. What we see now is that people understand that you need clean growth. We need good jobs that are protecting the environment at the same time, and indeed, that's the only way to move forward as an economy. So where we know we have elements of our country that are based on natural resources and always will be, we need to layer on top of that the knowledge economy, the innovative extractive techniques, environmentally responsible ways of doing things to demonstrate that we understand that balance and we're going to continue to promote that balance and create solutions for the world. The low oil prices are a challenge, but the Canadian economy is a lot more than just natural resources. We have extraordinary high tech sectors and innovative manufacturers and really strong biotech and mostly an educated diverse workforce that is excited about participating in the global economy. And you have a place a state like Alberta, which is sort of like the Texas of Canada and in many senses it's also where a lot of the oil is, that is now in favor of a carbon tax. It's again, maybe as an American, it's difficult to imagine how did the politics of this work out? Canadians began to understand that governments that didn't understand that the only way to grow the economy is also by being responsible around the environment weren't going to be able to grow the economy. We've had an awful lot of trouble getting pipelines built, getting our resources to market because a lot of Canadians and even our trading partners and friends have decided that Canada isn't doing its share and isn't responsible around the environment. So when we took office and actually six months before when a new government came into Alberta, it came in with a mandate to do things right by the environment and that's why the climate change conference in Paris, Canada was delighted to be taking a leadership role not just because we have to do something for the environment for the planet but also because there's a tremendous opportunity for economic growth, for jobs, for success by countries who get that environment and economy go together and the people of Alberta who are at the centre of this certainly understand that. When you look at the western world today, it seems as though there are problems in Europe, the United States is facing some new challenges I'm talking economically now. Do you worry that we are in for another global recession? I can't help but being tremendously optimistic. You know, conversations like I've had here, like I've had with business leaders across the country over the past months, conversations I've had with Canadians, people are very optimistic about the challenges that are coming in our capacity to build on them, to look at innovation, at the disruption that's happening right now to many old models as an opportunity to create great advances. Yes, there are difficult times and many people around the world who are facing real challenges but I have tremendous confidence in our capacity as governments, as private sectors, as citizens to solve these challenges. What do you say to the average worker in Canada who may not have a fancy college degree and I'm thinking about the average worker in America or in Europe as well who looks out at this world and says, I don't see what globalization is doing for me. The jobs are going to South Korea and China and Vietnam and India. Technology is great, but I can't afford the new iPad Pro and more importantly, this technology means it increasingly makes me less valuable. Why shouldn't I be angry and engage in a kind of politics of protest? Listen, there are huge challenges out there and as I said in my speech earlier, I mean the fourth industrial revolution if that indeed is where we are has tremendous benefits for humanity also could have real challenges and how we choose to adapt, how we choose to invest in education, how we choose to invest in infrastructure, how we choose to shift our economies to take advantage of the opportunities that technology, that computers give to leverage new ways of success. Yes, the world is changing, but I think we should be excited about it and I certainly when I speak with young people who see that the jobs that their parents had are not going to be the kind of jobs that they get to have and even workers who are having to retrain and pick up new abilities have worries but also there are tremendous opportunities and I think having a government that understands that investing in those new opportunities, that investing in our future, I mean we have a lot of countries around the world who are right now talking about cuts and austerity as a way of getting through. I'm the opposite. I believe that confident economies should be investing in their future, investing in their people. That's exactly what we're going to be doing in education, in infrastructure, in creating greater trade deals, to bring in products, to get out resources and to be full participators in the global economy. Couple more questions. I know we're running slightly over. Is President Obama a model? I think President Obama certainly showed that a progressive, intellectual, smart worldview can provide tremendous leadership. Obviously there are challenges in each country in getting that worldview into policy but I'm very impressed with how he's reached out and drawn together a very empowering, cohesive vision for the future that will have long impacts into the future in the United States. You're looking forward to the state dinner in March? I'm very much looking forward to sitting down, engaging with him, to visiting Washington, to highlighting the tremendous closeness between Canada and the United States and the opportunity for each of us to always bring the best out in each other. You have had an extraordinary situation in which you are now in the office that you probably remember from the time you were four, five, six years old when your father was Prime Minister. But you were not groomed to be Prime Minister. You went off and did all kinds of things including being a snowboarding instructor. What part of it has been, what part of it has brought back memories the most now that you're in this job? Just the contact with Canadians and that's something all my life whether it was as a school teacher or yes, a brief stint as a snowboard instructor and can I say Davos is lovely but you've got to come to Whistler and there's no time difference for Americans to come up to Whistler. The fact is meeting with Canadians and connecting with them on a values basis on a positive hopeful outlook trusting Canadians and focusing on getting people to step up. I mean my father always challenged us as his kids but he challenged Canadians as well to be better than we thought we are and I find that very much the way he raised me to be as a person and now as a Prime Minister. But he your father also always saw himself as having a role in a message larger than Canada. Do you believe you have a progressive voice that you want to spread beyond Canada? Well I think Canada I'm going to be typically Canadian and certainly say that it's not my place to tell anyone what they should be doing or shouldn't do but I think Canada has a model that works fairly well at a time where people are looking for how to create pluralistic successful communities in which there's tremendous opportunity for everyone to succeed. We're working very very hard on continuing that. We want to be positive players in the world and I think it's certainly nothing we can impose on everyone but if we can showcase that solutions around harmonious diverse communities are there to be had and there to be built and it's easier to think positively towards each other and be open and respectful than it is to be angry and mean. I think that's an important lesson to share with the world and I'm glad to be sharing it. Mr. Prime Minister, pleasure to have you on. Real pleasure for you. All right I should say merci bien. Well this is fantastic. This is such a pleasure. Thank you.