Almost ten years at the top. This Monday, January 6, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally announced his resignation, while indicating that he would remain in power until his party appoints a successor. The 53-year-old leader has been under pressure for weeks as legislative elections loom and his party is at its lowest in the polls.
Justin Trudeau today suffers from a low popularity rating, being seen as the main culprit for the high inflation hitting the country, as well as the housing and public services crisis. His announced departure marks the end of an era, marked by numerous reforms and unkept promises.
« Trudeaumania »
The political rise of this “son of” – his father, the charismatic Pierre Elliott Trudeau, led Canada between 1968 and 1984 – was written in advance. Born in 1971 in Ottawa, involved politically since adolescence, he became a federal deputy in 2008, in Montreal, in the same political party as his father, the Liberal Party of Canada. The following year, he was named spokesperson for young people and multiculturalism within this party. His lack of experience is criticized, as is his taste for the spotlight – he faces a conservative senator in a televised boxing match. But Justin Trudeau managed to be elected leader of the Liberal Party with 80% of the vote in 2013.
Two years later, although far in the polls at the start of the race for the federal election, he defied all predictions and became the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada, after a campaign focused on frenzied optimism. It was the beginning of a new “Trudeaumania” in Canada, the one his father had experienced in his time. In 2016, a poll placed him as Canadians’ favorite prime minister among the last seven who governed the country.
Under its three successive mandates, Canada will increase symbolic measures. A signatory to the Paris climate agreement in 2015, he declared that “ Canada is back “. Then he made immigration his spearhead to stop the aging of the country. After the outbreak of the war in Syria, he got involved and promoted the reception of 25,000 Syrian refugees in a few months. And it doesn’t stop there, opening the doors of the country even wider. In 2022, he says he wants to welcome 500,000 permanent residents by 2025, before going back.
Legalization of cannabis
His years at the head of the country were also marked by the legalization of cannabis in 2018. Controversial at the start, this measure is now widely accepted among the population. With a certain impact on the black market, which has been severely curtailed: in the first half of 2023, more than 70% of cannabis consumed came from a legal source, compared to 22% in the fourth quarter of 2018.
From 2019, at the start of his second term, Justin Trudeau’s decline began. He comes under fire for unfulfilled promises. Thus, although he has committed to the environment on numerous occasions, the Prime Minister has never given up on the oil industry, even continuing to subsidize it.
If Justin Trudeau has also increased the signs of openness towards the country’s first peoples, wishing “reinventing Canada’s relationship” with the natives, the actions do not follow. The head of government said he wanted to apply the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, established before he came to power, to shed light on the mistreatment suffered for decades in residential schools. But only 15% of these have been followed to date, according to the Indigenous Watchdog association.
Failed poker move
Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are starting to take the lead in the polls. Today, the latter has a lead of 20 points over Justin Trudeau. Riding on the housing crisis from which the country is suffering and the rising cost of living, the leader of the Conservatives has continued to insist that Canada is “broken” because of Justin Trudeau.
Last September, the Prime Minister’s left-wing ally, the New Democratic Party, decided to end the non-aggression pact with the Liberals, which he was dragging along like a ball and chain. The Prime Minister then tried a gamble, betting on a “popular” reform: on November 21, he temporarily suspended a tax on products and sales, to relieve the middle class before Christmas shopping. Failure: his deputy prime minister slams the door, denouncing “ expensive political tricks » in his resignation letter. The final blow for Justin Trudeau, while Donald Trump threatens to increase taxes on Canadian products by 25%… After a liberal decade, the country should, in all likelihood, quickly switch to the conservative camp.
