OTTAWA – A selection of what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said as he took part in a roundtable interview this week with The Canadian Press:

“Thinking Canadians voted based on hair or family connections is to profoundly underestimate Canadians. What I had, in the thousands of conversations I had with Canadians across the country, was a direct sense that Canadians care deeply about the country, about where it’s going, how we’re getting there — but were frustrated that politics tended to be more about cynicism and attacks and division than about bringing people together.”

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“The politics of attack and division are very effective ways of getting elected. But for me they were just not the ways I wanted to use, because I felt it bound you too much to a mode that inhibited your ability to govern for everyone.”

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“I’m a world leader now so I need to solve the Middle East, basically.” — Trudeau, half joking, half caustic, after being asked to lay out his vision of a path to peace in Syria and Iraq.

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“One of my own personal touch points on this is, if I can’t handle a little scrutiny — I mean listen, we’re going to have bad days where I won’t want to talk to you guys for specific reasons that you guys may know or may not know, I don’t know — we always know there are cycles in this. But if I can’t in a continuous and engaged way explain myself and my decisions to all of you, then how can I pretend to be able to be explaining them to Canadians, or justifying them?” — Trudeau on engaging with the news media.

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“They voted because they believed in the future of the country. So, ascribing anything that happened to celebrity is, quite frankly, severely underestimating Canadians.” — Trudeau on how the country voted on Oct. 19.

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“More than half of the MPs elected in Quebec are part of the governing party. That is an indication that Quebecers are not excluded from government or feeling excluded from Canada.” — Trudeau on Quebec and the Constitution.

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“It was never about a money-maker. It was always about public health, public safety.” — Trudeau on legalizing marijuana.