When viewing the full exchange, the woman’s question (
which starts at the 1:06:37 point in this video) lasts an astonishing four minutes — a substantial portion of which consists of her proselytizing for her church, to the growing annoyance of the audience.
She rambles on the theme of female equality in religion, and at one point she thanks Trudeau for ensuring gender parity in his cabinet. Even the sentence that ultimately leads Trudeau to interject is oddly contradictory on gender, though perhaps on purpose: “Maternal love is the love that’s going to change the future of mankind,” she says.
So Trudeau’s comment seems to have been a joke about the irony of it — and also an attempt to relieve tension, given the audience had been booing the questioner for taking so much time. The woman herself took it in that spirit, as she laughs and says “Exactly!”