Andrew MacDougall: Trudeau puts himself before country, even on the way out

At no point did Trudeau ever recalibrate. It was forever more of the same, delivered with as much sanctimony as he could muster.

Line Editor

Jan 08, 2025

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By: Andrew MacDougall

And so the Trudeau era ends, not with a bang, but a simper.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dialled it up to “peak emotive” on Monday during his resignation speech at Rideau Cottage, even if he was only out to sing the tunes nobody wants to dance to anymore. Not even the appearance of a few prime ministerial tears could convince Canadians this day was anything but long overdue.

Much like how 1980s Hollywood cock rock once struggled to cope with the rawness of early 90s grunge, Trudeau’s cloying, self-obsessed mid-2010s Liberalism has run straight into the buzzsaw of mid-20s proto-populism. Trudeau might still label himself a fighter, but if he ever bothered to look around he would see that precious few people remain in his corner. Canadians have simply grown tired of being told how shit they are by the man they feel has done more than his fair share of putting Canada into the shitter.

Whether that’s a fair assessment of Trudeau’s efforts as a leader is beside the point. As Brutus Freeland has taken to saying, it’s all about the “vibes.” Even the quote-unquote “Trudeau media” is gleefully writing his obituary. That’s how bad things have gotten for Trudeau the man. We’re not in 2015 anymore, Toto.

I’m not sure that Justin Trudeau “does” introspection, but it shouldn’t be hard for him to see how he got here from there. Beginning with hypocrisy.

Trudeau promised to do things differently, but kept many of the same governmental command-and-control measures implemented by the hated Stephen Harper. He promised to stop cramming legislation into budget bills and then treated his own budgets as all-you-can-eat legislative buffets. Trudeau promised to be open by default, but tightened the clamps on government information.

Early talk of “sunny ways” and Conservatives being “neighbours,” not “enemies” masked a hyper-partisan who was all too eager to ascribe ill motive to his political opponents. Whether abortion, guns, convoys or trans rights, there was only ever one “correct” position for Trudeau, and anyone on the other side, no matter how well-reasoned or well-intentioned, was a sinner. In Trudeau’s Canada, everyone was a genocidaire, even if they got their citizenship yesterday and had nothing to do with the historic wrongs of residential schools. Black Lives Matter meant everyone else were racists, whether overt or closeted. Every societal wrong was an opportunity for all of us to “learn a lesson.”

But who the teacher is matters in the giving of lessons. And Trudeau, himself once a teacher, didn’t ever appear to learn any of his own.

The man born with a silver spoon in his mouth continued his entitled behaviour in office, accepting remote island holiday gifts from “friends” like the Aga Khan and taking the company jet hither and yon in search of sun, snow or sand, no matter the expense, even during a cost of living crisis.

Early talk of gender balance and feminism gave way to the serial sacking of female cabinet ministers who stood up to him and a credible allegation of historic groping during the #MeToo movement. Contemporary condemnations of racism were undone by serial historic blackface.

Eager talk of prioritizing Indigenous relations was belied by a surf trip on the first mandated National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

And then there were the policy misfires.

Marijuana legalization and support for safe-injection sites were implemented at a time of skyrocketing drug-fuelled crime and a total inability to crack down on synthetic drug imports. Gun crime soared even though Trudeau made all kinds of guns illegaler (bar the ones actually being used for most crime).

The carbon tax was brought in and increased just as inflation was biting in the wake of COVID-19 and the Russian assault on Ukraine, two events which damaged global trade and supply lines and fuelled the cost of living crisis.

An aggressive response to the pandemic, while warranted on public-health grounds, tipped into zealotry with the use of the Emergencies Act and the confiscation of bank accounts for those involved in the trucker protests.

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Elsewhere, the maxing out of Canada’s immigration system came at a time when long-term infrastructure deficits were biting, whether on homes, hospitals, schools, roads or ports. The prime minister loved talking the talk about Canada’s promise, but did precious little to actually deliver it. As a result, the country’s long-standing cross-partisan support for immigration now lies in tatters.

Even Trudeau’s professed love for electoral reform — bizarrely resurrected during his resignation speech — was abandoned when the process he put in place produced an answer he didn’t like. When the going got tough, the big baby threw his toys out of the pram.

And at no point did Trudeau ever recalibrate. It was forever more of the same, delivered with as much sanctimony as he could muster. And the money. Oh boy, did this prime minister love to spend money! As a result, the public service has now ballooned like a puffer fish and Canada’s books are an awful long way from the balance they achieved at the time of Harper’s exit.

Even now, as the prime minister takes his leave, he appears to reject reality. His resignation speech was one long subtweet to his caucus and supporters about how dumb they were to not back him. Only that caucus and those supporters can read a poll, even if the lemmings in the caucus room never quite had the courage to pull Trudeau’s pin when it would have made a positive difference for them and for the country.

It would all be funny if it weren’t so tragic. Canada cannot afford to be both leaderless and rudderless at this moment, what with the potential tariff wolf at the door. Trudeau owed the country better than this self-obsessed and prolonged walk in the snow. The country needed its prime minister to put the needs of Canadians ahead of his own.

Only that’s not Justin Trudeau’s game. It never was, no matter how many times he cried telling us about how much he loves Canada.

Andrew MacDougall is a director at Trafalgar Strategy and former head of communications to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

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