One year ago, Justin Trudeau took office as Canada’s 23rd prime minister and promptly fulfilled a major campaign promise by appointing a diverse and gender balanced cabinet that “looks like Canada.” When a reporter asked why appointing women was a priority, Trudeau shrugged and responded with his now-famous quip, “because it’s 2015.”
Trudeau isn’t afraid to identify as a feminist and over the past year he’s taken advantage of his high profile to raise awareness about gender politics on the international stage. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, he urged men to actively promote women’s rights and discussed the importance of modeling feminist behavior for his two sons. At the United Nations, Trudeau questioned the media uproar every time he talks about his feminism and promised to “keep saying loud and clearly that I am a feminist until it is met with a shrug.” So far, he’s done just that, calling poverty “sexist,” gracing feminist memes, even weighing in on how to combat “man-terrupting” in a 10-second Snapchat video.