Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a total dreamboat as far as Canadian prime ministers go. He’s almost too perfect: Much has been made of his luscious locks, comfort with baby humans and pandas alike, and hope-y change-y politics. He personally distributes winter jackets to Syrian refugees! He inspires suit-clad fantasies with Barack Obama!
And of course, because he is Justin “15 women on my Cabinet because it’s 2015” Trudeau, he blathers on about feminism whenever he gets the mic.
In a new video from Vox, Trudeau chats with Liz Plank about gender equity, role modeling for his kids, and being a working dad.
It’s a picture of Trudeau at peak Trudeau. “I talk about the fact that I’m a feminist as often as I can, and every time I do, it gets a huge reaction, and the media reacts, and the Twitterverse explodes,” he says. “I will keep saying that until there is no more reaction … ‘cause that’s where we want to get to. It’s just—if you’re a progressive, you really should be a feminist, ‘cause it’s about equality, it’s about respect, it’s about making the best of the world that we have.” You can almost smell the earnest goodwill dripping from his pores like maple syrup.
Trudeau makes himself out to be the progressive dad of the 21st century. He frets over the fact that his job as prime minister means that his wife, Michelle Obama’s “soul mate” Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, takes on more of their parenting responsibilities, because he wants to prove to his kids that traditional gender roles are messed up. He freaks out when he sees his daughter judging women in a fashion magazine. He teaches his three kids, all under the age of 10, that people living with mental illness are “sick, not weak.” He calls out his own father for not being a feminist and applauds his Studio 54–partying mother for resisting the gendered expectations of her time.
The walking, talking Upworthy post really hits his stride when he’s talking about the extraordinary Grégoire-Trudeau as one of his feminist role models:
We were having a conversation at one point—I said, ‘Look, I talk to our daughter Ella. I talk to Ella all the time about how she can do anything she wants, and she’s just as good as any man—she’s better than any man because she’s brilliant.’ … And Sophie’s like, ‘Good. That’s great. But how are you saying that to our sons as well? How are you training your sons to be focused on women’s rights and women’s opportunities the way you’re focused on telling your daughter that she can be anything?’ And that, for me, was a really important wake-up.
Let’s all commend Canada for electing a self-aware feminist panda-cuddler while we consider our future under a president who uses the word schlong as a verb.
