Hello, WE Day!  Oh, man, it’s great to be back here this year.  This is my fifth time at WE Day, my second time as Prime Minister and I could tell you it gets better every time!

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What a great pleasure it is to see you here today, together, so many of you, motivated, engaged, enthused, anxious to make a difference for the future. It makes me not just happy to see you, but confident for our future.

You know, and a number of you have probably heard me say this before, but I think it matters that we remind ourselves that whenever you hear, you know, teachers or important speakers who come to tell you that you’re all the leaders of tomorrow, I want you to shake your heads at them.  I don’t want you to let anyone tell you that you are leaders of tomorrow because right now, right here, you’re showing that you are leaders of today!

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What you do makes a difference.  How you engage with your community, with your family, with your neighbours, how you talk with your friends about getting involved in making a better world, how you take a role and think about the future you want to be part of building -- that matters!  Everything you do, everything you say is leadership right now.  And it’s leadership that we need.

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And leadership is a challenge sometimes.  It takes courage. You’ve got to be able to push for what you believe. You’ve got to be able to convince others. You’ve got to demonstrate an ability to be positively engaged even when others are less so.  It’s so important that the energy you’re going to get here today, the energy you get today -- you need to bring that forward into the world.  You need to keep it up throughout the year.  You need to shape every day the world that you’re a part of.

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Now one thing that I’ve heard a lot from folks over the years is that young people can be disconnected or apathetic about the world or apathetic about politics.  And I know that that’s not true.  I know that you care deeply about shaping the world and I know that a number of you probably stayed up a little later last night to watch some of the election returns with your families.  And I know that some of you might have had questions of your parents this morning.  So I want to take a minute to chat with you a little bit about that.

First of all, the relationship between Canada and the United States is based on shared values and shared hopes and dreams, and we will always work well together.  We are strong because we listen to each other and we respect each other.

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And the fact is we’ve heard clearly from Canadians and from Americans that people want a fair shot at success.  People want to succeed.  People want to know that themselves, that their families, that their kids, that their grandkids will be able to succeed, and we need to work together to get that.  

We share a purpose, our two countries, where we want to build places where the middle class and those working hard to join it have a chance.  We need governments focused on service and that’s what we’re going to keep doing.  We’re going to keep working with people right around the world.  We’re going to work with our neighbours and I’m going to work with President-elect Trump’s administration as we move forward in a positive way for, not just Canadians and Americans, but the whole world!

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We hear from Canadians and Americans on both sides of the border who just want a real and a fair chance to succeed for themselves, for their children, for their grandchildren. We share the same goals. We share that desire to build countries where the middle class and those working hard to join it are going to have a real chance to succeed, and we need governments that listen to and address those concerns and those aspirations.

So we’re going to work hard, we’re going to work hard together, and I’m going to work with the administration of President-elect Trump and all partners around the world to ensure that we’re building the better world that you deserve.

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But I know we have a big day today.  You guys are going to hear from a whole range of amazing people like Hedley…

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… like Serena Ryder, like my friend Gord Downie, like a huge number of amazing people.  But one in particular I want to highlight.  Now I wasn’t always the best at listening to her when I was your age, but I really want you to listen to my mom.  

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She’s an amazing woman who’s done incredible things, who’s lived a life filled with extraordinary events, achievements, and challenges, and she inspires me every single day and I want you to hear what she has to say because she’s an amazing person and she did a pretty good job raising her kids I think too.

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But the work she’s doing around mental health, around making sure that we talk openly and challenge ourselves to be better about supporting our friends, our family members facing issues and challenges around mental health and how as a society we do better, I’m not going to steal her whole story, but I just really want to say to you that mental health is something that we all need to talk about more.

But today you’re going to hear from a huge range of people who will be challenging you to think differently, think better and mostly step up and be involved because together we will change this world!

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Thank you!