Right from the dying days of December 2024, it was increasingly becoming obvious that the former Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, was walking an impossible tightrope following his fast-diminishing popularity, with an approval rate of 30 per cent, according to the polls.
This was a painful paradox, judging from the euphoria and populist uproar that greeted his emergence less than a decade ago in 2015, when with his handsome looks and endearing liberal policies, led the Liberal Party to a dramatic win over the Conservative Party, after becoming the leader of the centre-left party two years earlier, even though he later took the party on an infamous route in history to become the longest-serving minority leadership in the Canadian parliament.
One of the often-talked-about straws that broke the camel’s back for the former prime minister, was the threatened trade tariff of the incoming ex-President Donald Trump.
Trump had threatened a 25 per cent tariff on goods from Canada as a way of mounting pressure on Canada over immigration. Amid internal pressure coupled with a dwindling economy and wobbling prescriptions, Trump’s policy jab hit Trudeau on the jaw badly. In a bid to put up a face and play the tough card, the prime Minister soon bowed to pressure and didn’t seem to know what to do.
His chosen way of handling the issue led to a dispute with his Deputy prime minister and Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, who suddenly resigned and accused Trudeau of playing the good Dad in the face of national economic woes.
For example, Freeland does not see the reason for the announcement of a sales tax exemption during the Christmas season which was estimated to have caused a huge tax revenue loss of billions of dollars. But Trudeau, who wants to appeal to the electorates with a people policy didn’t consider the detrimental effects of such a costly policy at a time when the National Treasury is gasping for breath.
Apart from leading the Liberal Party to a slim Election win in 2019 which pushed his administration into a minority government, Trudeau’s handling of the COVID pandemic and the subsequent rushed elections two years ahead of schedule was seen as a political misstep, as he couldn’t get his Party returned to majority leadership in parliament as anticipated.
All of this, coupled with his anti-people but leftist Canada’s voluntary assisted dying laws attracted widespread condemnation and thus lowered the approval rating of his government. His admitted errors in immigration policy and the belated attempt to reduce the percentage influx of immigrants was another faux pas.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given “internal battles” within the Liberal Party as his utmost reason for his resignation. But one cannot underestimate the growing political tidal wave that is sweeping liberalism away, positioning the rightist’s ideologies and dominance across the globe.
Nevertheless, Justin Trudeau, (the son of a former prime minister) in a little less than a decade, was the poster boy of liberalism. His forced exit has shown that governance is all about the welfare of the people and not about good looks and sartorial excellence.
