Canada’s new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has been getting a lot of attention around the world. And a lot of it has been because of his looks and his charm.
Last week he travelled to Antalya, Turkey to take part in an important meeting, the G20 Summit. The meeting involved 20 world leaders, who get together each year in a different country to discuss topics that concern all of them, such as economics and money. Some of the countries in the G20 are Canada, the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and South Africa.
This year, Trudeau was given a “rock-star welcome” by people who wanted to take pictures with him and shake his hand. The reaction to his presence in Turkey reminded many people of a similar reaction his father, Pierre Trudeau, sometimes got when he was Canada’s prime minister.
At the G20, however, Justin Trudeau stuck with the important issues he wanted to discuss. He reminded people about some of the things that he, as Canada’s leader, says are most important: bringing 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of the year (in this case, people who have had to flee their home-country of Syria and seek to live in a safer country).
He told the G20 audience that he believes climate change is a major problem, and that he wants to invest money in trying to lessen its affects on the environment.
After the G20 Summit, Trudeau travelled to the Philippines for the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) Summit, which was held in Manila. Trudeau was given the nickname “APEC hottie” by the newspapers there.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Typically politicians get attention for their ideas and decisions. In Justin Trudeau’s case, he is also getting attention for his looks. What are the positive and negative sides of this attention? Do you think this attention will help him or hurt him?
Reading Prompt: Responding to and Evaluating Texts
The article states that when he went to Turkey, “Trudeau was given a “rock-star welcome” by people who wanted to take pictures with him and shake his hand.” Around the world people are treating Trudeau as a celebrity.
What makes someone a celebrity? How is it decided who is a celebrity and who isn’t?
Junior
Make judgements and draw conclusions about the ideas and information in texts and cite stated or implied evidence from the text to support their views (OME: Reading, 1.8).
Intermediate
Evaluate the effectiveness of both simple and complex texts based on evidence from the texts (OME, Reading, 1.8).
Language Feature: Proper Nouns
Proper nouns are specific people, places and things. For example, Justin Trudeau and Canada are proper nouns. Notice that these two proper nouns are capitalized. Common nouns refer to non-specific people, places and things. For example, cheese, lake and television are common nouns.
In this article, the noun “prime minister” is not capitalized. Why do you think that is?
