No more “Trudeaumania”: Justin Trudeau, glamorous and modern star of the Canadian liberals, made a sensational entrance onto the political scene in 2015. He exited through the back door almost a decade later.
Discredited in the polls, abandoned by his own camp, mocked by Donald Trump for weeks, the Canadian Prime Minister resigned on Monday
Discredited in the polls, abandoned by his own camp, mocked by Donald Trump for weeks, the Canadian Prime Minister resigned on Monday. He remains in office to give his party time to find a successor.
The pressure has been very strong for weeks on the head of the Canadian government, 53, whose popularity rating is at its lowest.
The blows were increasingly supported by the opposition led by Pierre Poilievre, who is not in the habit of mincing his words, but also from his own camp, alarmed by catastrophic polls for the Liberal party ( center-left) a few months before the legislative elections.
However, upon his arrival in 2015, Justin Trudeau, son of a former Prime Minister, promised Canadians “sunny paths” and sparked enthusiasm.
His well-thought-out comment “Because it’s 2015” to explain gender parity within his first government then opened the way to world fame. His physique doing the rest.
In the early days, his trips abroad sometimes resembled a rock-star trip with young girls lining up for a selfie.
He is then seen as an ecological, modern leader, defender of the rights of refugees and indigenous populations. In July 2017, while Donald Trump was in the White House, the American magazine Rolling Stone asked on the cover: “Why can’t he be our president?”
In Canada, the honeymoon lasted less than internationally. He was re-elected twice without panache, in 2019 and 2021, and his legitimacy has been seriously undermined for years.
“He surely stayed a year too long in power and so it ends up a bit fishtail,” said Geneviève Tellier, professor of political science in Ottawa, adding that there is great disappointment among public opinion because he had “promised so much “.
Even on themes like “climate change or reconciliation with indigenous peoples”, Justin Trudeau “has not been the reformer that many hoped for”, adds Maxwell Cameron, of the University of British Columbia.
Born on December 25, 1971, Justin Trudeau, who is the eldest son of the charismatic former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who died in 2000, studied English literature and educational sciences, before looking for his career: amateur boxer, snowboard instructor, English and French teacher…
This father of three children finally followed in his father’s footsteps and entered politics in 2007. He was elected MP for Montreal in 2008 then leader of a liberal party in tatters in 2013.
Prime Minister, he made Canada the second country in the world to legalize cannabis, established medical assistance in dying, a carbon tax, allowed the reception of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and signed a modernized version of the agreement North American free trade (NAFTA).
But a decade after he came to power, his popularity collapsed. In Canada, Justin Trudeau is today seen as responsible for high inflation, the housing crisis and public services.
And his mandates have been tarnished by a series of scandals and diplomatic gaffes which have clouded his image.
Defining himself as a “fighter”, he has long rejected calls for his resignation, refusing to admit defeat even in the face of polls which gave him 20 points behind his conservative rival, Pierre Poilievre.
In recent weeks, it is ultimately the attacks of Donald Trump which will in turn deal him the fatal blow. The American president-elect has promised to impose 25% customs duties on Canada and Mexico upon his return to power on January 20, causing shock waves among his neighbors.
In the process, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland resigns and displays her disagreements on how to manage the economic war that is looming with the United States. The shock is too strong.
For Stéphanie Chouinard, professor of politics at Queen’s University, “what we will ultimately remember about the Trudeau era are surely its very generous social programs. It was a progressive government like we have not seen since the 70s.”
