Quote:Trudeau came face-to-face with demonstrators even before the packed event. Earlier on Wednesday he was met by more than 100 anti- and pro-pipeline demonstrators as he arrived at a Liberal party fundraising luncheon.

One of the most contested topics in Kamloops remains the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, with some adamantly supporting the pipeline because of the jobs it could create, and others opposing it for environmental reasons.

The town hall meeting also had lighter moments —Trudeau was grilled on his problem-plagued India trip in 2018 — to which he replied, "it was a trip that happened."

Quote:“Would it really be bad relationship advice to give you just to tell you, you know, from all of us, just push him off a cliff? We’re good.”

There was laughter and some scattered applause from the crowd.

“Like, really. I’ll buy ya a beer,” the man continued. He concluded: “But anyways, thank you for giving me the mic. I just wanted to get that off . . . you mentioned him . . .”

Trudeau, smiling a restrained smile, responded by gently advising Canadians not to joke about such things.

“I wasn’t expecting a threat of violence against our closest ally, but uh, I, I — you know, in politics people have all sorts of opinions,” Trudeau said. “And all sorts of perspectives about who is leading at any given moment. The relationship between Canada and the United States goes far deeper than who happens to be prime minister and who happens to be president.”