NEW YORK (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged graduates of New York University on Wednesday to embrace diversity and not cocoon themselves in an ideological “bubble.”
“Our celebration of difference needs to extend to differences in values and belief, too,” Trudeau said in a commencement address before more than 30,000 graduates and family members.
He said it is far too easy “to engage only with people with whom we already agree. Members of our tribe.”
Rather, he said, the graduates should let themselves be “vulnerable to another’s point of view.”
“As you go forward from this place, I would like you to make a point of reaching out to people whose beliefs and values differ from your own. I would like you to listen to them, to truly listen, and try to understand them, and find that common ground,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau also received an honorary doctorate during the ceremony at a rain-soaked Yankee Stadium.
His schedule later Wednesday included meetings with the CEOs of Honeywell, PepsiCo and WeWork.
His three-day visit to New York and Boston will include a luncheon at the Economic Club of New York on Thursday and a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday.
The visit comes amid talks between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico over whether to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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