Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h/t James Delingpole / Breitbart – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just gave a speech in New York about the need to respect and listen to others and bring everyone together, unless those others are climate “deniers” or supporters of female genital mutilation.

Trudeau uses NYU graduation speech to criticize growth in identity politics

Trudeau uses NYU graduation speech to criticize growth in identity politics

‘The leadership we need most today, and in the years to come, is leadership that brings people together’

Mia Rabson · The Canadian Press ·

Posted: May 16, 2018 8:06 PM ET

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first order of business after descending on Donald Trump’s hometown Wednesday was to enlist thousands of newly minted American university graduates in the fight against a rising tide of intolerance and nationalism around the world.

Officials had billed Trudeau’s three-day trip to New York and Boston as focused on trade and the economic relationship between Canada and the U.S., with looming NAFTA deadlines as a backdrop.

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Respect people who don’t look or think like you do, Trudeau said. Engage those with whom you may not agree. And take up a leadership role against the aggressive nationalism and identity politics that are making the world a far more complex place to live.

“The leadership we need most today, and in the years to come, is leadership that brings people together,” he said, clad in a graduation gown of his own after receiving an honorary degree — the first world leader to get one from NYU while in office.

“That brings diversity to a common cause. This is the antithesis of the polarization, the aggressive nationalism, the identity politics that have grown so common of late.”

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Seeking out people with different viewpoints and respecting those who hold different political opinions does not mean those perspectives all have merit, he noted.

He mentioned advocates of female genital mutilation in the same breath as deniers of climate change — people who hold viewpoints that will never be valid, no matter how long they have been expressing those views or how loudly they do so.

He urged graduates to do more than just tolerate other points of view, but to respect and hear what others say in service of a better understanding the world, rather than simply striving to win an argument.

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