I know Russia well.

Assad is not the greatest ally to have.

There are no bad seats at the cabinet table.

I really believe in hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

In practice, getting rid of crony capitalism is incredibly difficult.

People don't just want to be rich and successful, they want to be good.

In a globalized economy, jobs no longer need a passport, but workers do.

In America, we have equated personal business success with public virtue.

The main point of democracy is to deliver positive results for the majority.

I interviewed Putin himself in 2000, shortly after he took over as president.

Slavery is America's original sin and was the great global injustice of that age.

I cut my teeth as a journalist writing about societies that didn't have democracy.

It's good to be good at playing defence, but the best defence is a strong offence.

My respect for politicians has increased. It's hard work - even hard physical work.

I see social mobility and equality of opportunity as really successful Canadian values.

We are all living in a world shaped by Reagan and his ideology of small 'l' liberalism.

Corporations are not employment agencies, and judging them by that metric is a mistake.

We recognize that NAFTA is a three-country agreement, and we need a three-country negotiation.

The triumph of economic liberalization has coincided with a sharp increase in income inequality.

The age of economic relations as the primary arena for interactions between states is already upon us.

Plutocrats worldwide have readily understood the advantages of evading the burdens of the nation-state.

Reagan's legacy is so powerful because he identified the state as the central issue in American politics.

Changes which are slow and gradual can be hard to notice even if their ultimate impact is quite dramatic.

One thing America gets right is being open to innovation. Canada and Scandinavia have to do better on that.

This globalization is lifting up hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The Left needs to see that.

Fancy GPS systems and space-age tractors are what most excite the farmers I know and astound their city friends.

We in Canada are not going to say Muslims are worse than Christians or are worse than Jews or are worse than atheists.

Social media now make it easier to organize protest movements, even - or perhaps especially - in authoritarian regimes.

If you believe in democracy, than you can't trash it by being cynical about the people who do democracy: the politicians.

A thing that really troubles me about a more polarized society is that you stop having a sense of society and citizenship.

If the Tea Party gets its way, there will be less government - which is great for the elites. They don't need the government.

The irony of the political rise of the plutocrats is that, like Venice's oligarchs, they threaten the system that created them.

Worrying about the poor is one thing. To contend that equality is necessary for growth is an altogether different and more radical idea.

When Canada works to counter extremism and terrorism, particularly in the Middle East, Israel is always a natural partner and a close ally.

I lived in Moscow for four years and really, really enjoyed it, and I have a really deep love for the Russian language and Russian culture.

The hollowing out of the middle class is a problem common to all Western industrialized economies. Maybe we should work together to solve it.

One consequence of Russia's klepto-capitalist model is the growing appeal of government jobs, with their lucrative opportunities for payoffs.

Environmentally friendly business practices have long been mainstream, particularly when they create a brand advantage, as with organic foods.

The chief job of foreign policy today is helping to figure out the rules for the global economy and defending each nation's interests within it.

Income inequality is one thing, but a permanent division into the haves and have-nots is an entirely different thing - and much less acceptable.

What is interesting is that, although it is framed as a war between the elites and Main Street, the Tea Party is actually really good for the elites.

I am a very strong supporter of our government's view that it is important to engage with all countries around the world - very much including Russia.

This notion that borders wouldn't matter, that we would have commonality of interests around the world. Well, guess who got there first? The plutocrats.

Especially among journalists, politics is not a pursuit that's held in high esteem. We tend to be cynical about it - but I actually believe in democracy.

The challenge of weaning ourselves off fossil fuel even as it becomes more abundant will make the old fights about energy conservation seem like child's play.

Our light-speed, globally connected economy has led to the rise of a new super-elite that consists, to a notable degree, of first- and second-generation wealth.

I love the Internet. I love my mobile devices. I love the fact that they mean that whoever chooses to will be able to watch this talk far beyond this auditorium.

If you doubt that we live in a winner-take-all economy and that education is the trump card, consider the vast amounts the affluent spend to teach their offspring.

If you've developed an ideology that what's good for you personally also happens to be good for everyone else, that's quite wonderful because there's no moral tension.

Our culture is a very diverse one, and I think now it is incredibly dangerous and very wrong to persecute Muslims and say there is something wrong with being a Muslim.

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