I am entirely confident that the extraordinary women we have running for us right across Canada will make excellent cabinet ministers.

One of the most important things in any leader or in any successful approach is to focus on connecting with people and really listening to them. We shouldn't just be saying, oh yes, the people are protesting. We need to ask them why they are protesting and try and figure out if there is something we can do to bring them in and respond to those concerns. That's not populism - that's being thoughtfully open to the fact that our citizens are allowed to have, and are even justified in having, very real concerns and questions for the people responsible for serving them.

I don't read the newspapers, I don't watch the news. I figure, if something important happens, someone will tell me.

I'm a high school teacher. I'm someone who stumbles my way through, leads with my chin in some cases, leads with my heart in all cases.

I look at what I have as a challenge and I could list a whole bunch of different challenges. And I choose not to be daunted by any of them.

I'm happy when people decide that they are more aligned with me and my party but they should also think about being active and aligned with the parties that disagree with me on certain issues.

For me, to represent people who represent the future of Canada and the great challenges we will face over the coming decades - this is where I wanted to start. I'm a teacher; I'm a convenor; I'm a gatherer; I'm someone who reaches out to people and is deeply interested in what they have to say. And people see that I'm not faking it. I'm actually genuinely committed to this dialogue that we're opening up, and this understanding that needs to happen in order to be an effective MP.