JUSTIN TRUDEAU HAD A SPE-cial bond with Canadians, who had known him since he was born, on Christmas Day in 1971, as the son of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
That bond helped him get his dad's old job. Trudeau had grown up in public, and he brought a welcome dose of glamour to the humdrum world of Canadian politics. With his election as Prime Minister in 2015 he managed to bring his Liberal Party a resounding mandate, an echo of the “Trudeaumania” that gripped the country when his father won government in 1968. It was a restoration of the elder Trudeau’s vision of Canada as a bilingual, multicultural northern social-welfare state—this time with more openness and fun.
But after nine tumultuous years as Canada’s leader, Trudeau was forced to announce his resignation on Jan. 6 to avoid a revolt from Liberal Members of Parliament, who are facing certain defeat in an election that will likely take place before the snow melts.
TRUDEAU WILL STAY ON until his replacement is chosen, but he leaves his country in a perilous place. Canadians are not in the mood to celebrate his accomplishments as Prime Minister, which range from bringing in a carbon tax and legalizing marijuana to successfully managing the first presidency of Donald Trump and getting Canada through the COVID-19 pandemic.
> Canadians are not in the mood to celebrate his accomplishments
Trudeau managed those crises fairly well, though he created others, including a blackface controversy and a series of ethics scandals. What did him in, however, was the postpandemic cost-of-living crisis. As with practically every other inc...
That bond helped him get his dad's old job. Trudeau had grown up in public, and he brought a welcome dose of glamour to the humdrum world of Canadian politics. With his election as Prime Minister in 2015 he managed to bring his Liberal Party a resounding mandate, an echo of the “Trudeaumania” that gripped the country when his father won government in 1968. It was a restoration of the elder Trudeau’s vision of Canada as a bilingual, multicultural northern social-welfare state—this time with more openness and fun.
But after nine tumultuous years as Canada’s leader, Trudeau was forced to announce his resignation on Jan. 6 to avoid a revolt from Liberal Members of Parliament, who are facing certain defeat in an election that will likely take place before the snow melts.
TRUDEAU WILL STAY ON until his replacement is chosen, but he leaves his country in a perilous place. Canadians are not in the mood to celebrate his accomplishments as Prime Minister, which range from bringing in a carbon tax and legalizing marijuana to successfully managing the first presidency of Donald Trump and getting Canada through the COVID-19 pandemic.
> Canadians are not in the mood to celebrate his accomplishments
Trudeau managed those crises fairly well, though he created others, including a blackface controversy and a series of ethics scandals. What did him in, however, was the postpandemic cost-of-living crisis. As with practically every other inc...
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Time (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 27, 2025