Addressing the Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner on Saturday night, Canadian Prime Minister went down memory lane and spoke about the “downs and downs” during past few months and his recent India trip that was a “trip to end all trips”.
During his address at the dinner, Mr Trudeau ran a slide show of his “special moments” to his what many would call a ‘forgettable’ India trip that received press coverage not just in India and Canada but in many other countries too.
“That’s it for this year.. nothing else happened.. we didn’t go to India.”
“The beginning of the end” slideshow opens with a map of India shown upside down and included Mr Trudeau receiving “a very warm welcome” from the Indian Agriculture Minister - an event that made headlines in India and Canada speculating on whether the Indian PM Modi had deliberately not received the visiting PM.
The slideshow ends with a photograph of Sophie Grégoire Trudeau in a sari, and conspicuously cropped out was Jaspal Atwal, a former Khalistan militant whose presence at the Canadian High Commissioner’s reception in Delhi proved quite an embarrassment for Mr Trudeau. It turned out, Mr Atwal was on the guest list courtesy of Surrey Centre MP Randeep Sarai.
“Randeep Sarai was in-charge of the guest list tonight, so just watch your backs,” Mr Trudeau announced to the gathering on Saturday night.
“That was India - the trip to end all trips.
Serious, I have told my staff, I am not going anywhere ever again.”
While Mr Trudeau welcomed all factions of Canadian politics by thanking them for supporting democracy, he left no one out of his satirical comments, including NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
The NDP leader left no opportunity to reciprocate the Prime Minister's gestures and called his India trip ‘as bad as his Bhangra moves’.
“I should better teach you, in fact, all those present here some nice and simple Bhangra moves,” before breaking into the traditional Punjabi dance on popular Punjabi number Mundeian ton bach ke rahin.
Mr Singh also resorted to some self-deprecating humour during his address. "My staff was really worried that I am just going to bomb it. And I told them, 'Relax. I denounce terrorism in all its forms'."
Prime Minister Trudeau wrapped up his speech by challenging the media to keep him ‘engaged’, to keep asking hard questions, then thanked the press for giving him a hard time which resulted in him performing even better. Mr Trudeau called free press the foundation of democracy.
Towards the end of the evening, Jagmeet Singh received a hug from PM Trudeau after Jagmeet had called himself ‘Jug like Hug’.
