Justin Trudeau will not be missed

Canada’s long national nightmare is finally coming to an end. 

Justin Trudeau has announced he is resigning as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He will remain prime minister until his replacement is announced in a forthcoming leadership race, and has prorogued parliament until March 2.

What took him so long to read the tea leaves that have been available for consumption for what seemed like an eternity? His poll numbers, as well as his government’s, have been disastrous for years. The Liberals are well behind Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives. One recent Angus Reid Institute poll had the Liberals at a record-low 16 percent. 

That’s a question only he can answer, but we can speculate on possible reasons.

Here’s an easy one: Trudeau is not only the worst prime minister in Canadian history, but also the most delusional. 

Liberals have had enough. Canadians have had enough

All of the previous occupants of this esteemed office, both Liberal and Conservative, would have known it was time to depart long ago. There are moments in history when a national leader loses the confidence of the people, his caucus and parliament. He or she may have largely contributed to this impending demise — or, in some cases, only partially. Regardless of how it happens, a relatively graceful exit is always the best way to preserve one’s political legacy.

Trudeau didn’t have the slightest understanding of how to do this. That’s why he couldn’t completely step away on Monday, like he should done. 

Meanwhile, many of Canada’s political commentators and columnists, including me, sensed that Trudeau either felt he’d done nothing wrong as prime minister — or that everyone else was to blame for his demise. He also seemingly thought that he could turn this rudderless Liberal ship around. 

Based on what evidence? Beats me. The list of his failures, missteps and blunders since becoming prime minister in 2015 leaves the mistakes of every previous Canadian leader in the dust. 

Three older instances of wearing blackface, for instance. Tensions with female Liberal members of parliament like his former parliamentary secretary Celina Caesar-Chavannes, and former female cabinet ministers like Jody Wilson-Raybould, Jane Philpott and, most recently, Chrystia Freeland. Two violations from the ethics commissioner for accepting a trip to the Aga Khan’s private island and the SNC Lavalin controversy. 

There’s more. Trudeau’s preposterous 2014 comment that the Canadian budget “will balance itself,” and his equally preposterous 2021 remark to reporters, “you’ll forgive me if I don’t think about monetary policy.” The prime minister worked hard to persuade the US and Mexico to include concepts like gender rights and Indigenous rights during NAFTA renegotiations instead of focusing on the main issue, trade. He’s spent tax dollars like a drunken sailor: passing a crippling national carbon tax that’s left Canadians of all political stripes furious for years. Housing and heating prices have become unaffordable in many Canadian provinces. Even Trudeau’s recent proposal of a GST holiday on certain items like potato chips and alcohol was rejected by most Canadians correctly discerned as a wasteful measure to regain lost voter support.

There was a litany of national and international controversies, too. 

Accusations of Chinese election interference in the 2019 and 2021 elections still remain unresolved. Trudeau skipped various speaking engagements to go surfing with his family in Tofino, B.C. during the first National Truth and Reconciliation Day, which the Native communities will never forgive him for doing. There was taking the knee during the Black Lives Matter protests in front of cameras and the media. There was the Freedom Convoy and disgraceful use of the Emergencies Act. There was allowing a Nazi to be applauded in parliament. There was speaking out of both sides of his mouth about Israel and the Middle East. There were icy relations with two US presidents, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. There was complaining to Trump about the economic implications of the latter’s forthcoming 25 percent tariffs on all Canadian products instead of offering solutions, which has led to jokes, taunts and memes about Canada becoming the fifty-first US state and Trudeau its “governor.”

Yet, he likely thought that he could still weather this thunderous storm that had raged for nearly a decade until the stunning resignation of Chrystia Freeland, his deputy prime minister and finance minister, last month. 

“On Friday, you told me you no longer want me to serve as your Finance Minister and offered me another position in the Cabinet,” Freeland wrote in her resignation letter on December 16. “Upon reflection, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from the Cabinet. To be effective, a Minister must speak on behalf of the Prime Minister and with his full confidence. In making your decision, you made clear that I no longer credibly enjoy that confidence and possess the authority that comes with it.”

What’s even more ludicrous? Freeland was still expected to give the government’s long-delay fall economic statement that day! Having finally realized this self-described liberal feminist prime minister was anything but, she refused. Who can blame her?

Liberals have had enough. Canadians have had enough. The world has had enough.

Good riddance, Justin Trudeau. Few will miss you, and many will enthusiastically wave good-bye when you’re finally gone.