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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promoted gender parity on Friday at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, where four of five delegates are men.

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Less than a minute into the discussion Friday, moderator Lyse Doucet, a Canadian journalist with the BBC, had already referenced the “Because it’s 2015” catch phrase.

“People have to know that before I could say, ‘Because it’s 2015,’ an awful lot of hard work went into 2012, 2013, 2014,” Trudeau said Friday. “I personally convinced a number of extraordinary women to step forward (and run for public office).”

He said the Liberals asked people to recommend female candidates and they followed up. He said he convinced women like Chrystia Freeland, now his minister of international trade, to run.

He took aim at people who questioned his selections and argued that cabinet posts should be based on merit, not quotas.