Author Joseph Boyden on why he supports Justin Trudeau

October 13, 2015

Renowned Canadian author Joseph Boyden endorses Justin Trudeau for Prime Minister:

“My name’s Joseph Boyden. I’m a Canadian writer, a teacher, a father, an uncle to more than three dozen nephews and nieces. Let me tell you why I unequivocally support Justin Trudeau for Prime Minister of Canada in this most important of federal elections.

“It begins with my parents. As it should. My father, Raymond Wilfrid Boyden, was a combat physician and the most highly decorated Canadian doctor in World War II. My mother Blanche is a brilliant, now retired, schoolteacher. Together, they raised a very large family. I’m the ninth of eleven children. And my parents ingrained in all of us simple but core truths. Always care for all. Always stand up for your convictions. Never be told by anyone that you shouldn’t or that you can’t, especially when you know that you must. And never, they told us, ever, tolerate bullies, regardless of how big they appear or what form they take. My parents taught us this through example.

“My large family is distinctly Canadian: our blood is both European and First Nations. We are mostly Celtic and Ojibwe; we siblings practice different religions (a couple of us not at all but don’t tell my mom); we work hard so that our children can do better than us when they get older; we deeply understand how lucky we are to be Canadian with Canadian values of inclusion, generosity, tolerance, and a fierce love of our land.

“And we refuse to tolerate the politics of divisiveness. As proud as I am of my father’s war medals, I’m most proud that when he came back from seven years of war, he started a family practice and he welcomed all. So often his patients were newly arrived Canadians, and regardless of their race or faith or language, he treated them as carefully and as kindly as he did his own children. Just ask the many Canadians and their grandchildren that he welcomed into the world with his very own hands.

“My father would be appalled by the Harper government’s deeply unethical election tactics: their bullying, their fear mongering and intolerance, their race-baiting, their absolute willingness to infect us with the basest of what is, at its heart, hatred.

“I’ve always listened to my father. And, of course, to my mother. I will not stand for hatred, or its cousin, fear. Our country is not a nation of intolerance and divisiveness and misguided anger.

“Our country, I know, is what I am. Our country is what Justin Trudeau is. We are a great big and beautiful and loud and proud family who always stand up for one another and always protect one another; we not just refuse but are fierce with those who wish to try and do the ugly work of tearing us apart.

“This is why I unequivocally support Justin Trudeau. He has not just the vision but the graceful strength to unite and to lead. Justin Trudeau is the face of real change.”

Joseph Boyden
Quebec City