Cornies: Trudeau leaves too late, with country vulnerable

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When he was first elected to the House of Commons in 2008, Justin Trudeau attracted more public and media attention than other rookie MPs. He was, after all, the son of a prime minister, carrying the standard of his father’s party.

Otherwise, the young Trudeau’s political credentials were thin. He had chaired the Katimavik youth program founded by family friend Jacques Hébert, supported Stéphane Dion in the 2006 Liberal leadership race and chaired a task force on renewing the interest of young voters after the party’s defeat in the 2006 election. Most Canadians, however, remembered him for little more than the heart-rending eulogy he delivered at his father’s funeral in 2000.

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It wasn’t until his arrival on Parliament Hill as an MP in his own right that he turned heads again. In 2011, Canadians noticed when the Liberals were reduced to third-party status in the House with only 34 seats and Trudeau kept his.

Then came his charity boxing match against Conservative senator Patrick Brazeau in 2012. The slighter, nimbler Trudeau bested his heavier opponent and began to wear the brand of “fighter” with some legitimacy.

A year later, Trudeau won the leadership of the moribund Liberal party, despite lingering concerns he lacked the political and intellectual depth to take on prime minister Stephen Harper.

With the public, however, he caught on. In October 2015, Trudeau led the Liberals to a strong majority government (184 of 338 seats), the second-best performance in the party’s history.

It’s worth remembering the Trudeau majority was propelled in part by growing dissatisfaction, even among Conservatives, with the degree to which Harper had centralized power within the prime minister’s office, ostensibly for the purpose of party discipline. (It had jettisoned the “Progressive” part of its brand a dozen years earlier). Among Harper’s Conservatives, even backbenchers were given their talking points and told which events they could and could not attend.

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Trudeau seized the moment, declaring government transparency, “sunny ways” and “government by cabinet” were back. For the first time in Canadian history, the federal cabinet was gender-balanced, “because it’s 2015.” It was a public relations coup; he was any communicator’s dream client.

During the next four years, however, Trudeau slowly recalibrated government power, consolidating it inside the PMO once more. He expelled star cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould from caucus over differences with her on the prosecution of Montréal-based SNC-Lavalin (now called AtkinsRéalis Group Inc.). Treasury board president and former health minister Jane Philpott, another remarkable public servant, quit cabinet in solidarity. Other scandals brought about a more executive-style government, not unlike that for which Harper had become known.

Then came two consecutive Liberal minorities, in 2019 and 2021. In between, the COVID-19 pandemic put Trudeau’s face on TV screens nearly every day and familiarity bred contempt. Many Canadians chafed under lockdowns; meanwhile, the government shovelled billions into emergency benefit programs. Deficits soared. The truckers’ protests in Ottawa, Windsor and Coutts, Alta., became lightning rods and national calamities, as did reports of foreign government interference in our elections.

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Meanwhile, Trudeau blithely waved away a series of ethical lapses in judgment and political missteps (the WE charity scandal, the vacation at the property of the Aga Khan in the Bahamas, as examples). His nonchalance was read by many Canadians as arrogance, ignorance or the result of a patrician upbringing, so unlike their own.

When finance minister Chrystia Freeland finally put an end to Trudeau’s jockeying by resigning rather than present to Parliament a budget update she couldn’t support, she catalyzed the end of Trudeau’s political career.

Trudeau will be remembered as a consequential prime minister. He was concerned about reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. He championed LGBTQ rights, opened the door to legal use of cannabis and medical assistance in dying. He made strides toward addressing climate change. He renegotiated, at least temporarily, the USMCA trade treaty. He managed his way through a global pandemic (and let’s be honest: No party of any stripe was going to execute that response perfectly).

If charm and charisma brought Trudeau to power, hubris took him out. He stubbornly clung to power, even as polls and byelections signalled a desire for change. A Liberal leadership race should have been called six months ago.

The prorogation of Parliament and the subsistence of a lame-duck cabinet, precisely at the arrival of a Trump administration bent on humiliating Canada and inflicting great harm to its economy, have done the country a great disservice. Because it’s 2025 and the outlook for Canada is decidedly less sunny.

Larry Cornies is a London-based journalist. cornies@gmail.com

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