(CNN) In a speech largely focusing on the need for shared economic priorities between Canada and the US, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear that his nation would not be cowed -- or "moused" -- out of representing its own interests.

"Canada is a confident, creative, resourceful and resource-rich nation. We are a wealthy and influential country by world standards. But we are also a country of 35 million people living next door to one roughly 10 times our size and the world's only superpower," Trudeau said at the US' National Governors Association summer meeting in Providence, Rhode Island on Friday.

"My father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, once compared this to sleeping next to an elephant," he told the gathering of US state governors. "While you, my American friends, may be an elephant, Canada is no mouse. More like a moose -- strong and peaceable but still massively outweighed."

While emphasizing the long and friendly history between Canada and the US, the prime minister explained that his country is renewing its engagement in the bilateral relationship.

"This is another truth about good neighbors: sometimes we take each other for granted. Sometimes the very dependability and ease of a relationship can lead to us paying too little attention, he said. "We in Canada decided we would not allow that to happen to our relationship with the United States of America."

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