Politics

New York Times Op-ed Slams Canada’s Justin Trudeau

Published

5 months ago

2024-04-28

Majority of Canadians Want Trudeau to Resign: File Image

Political careers often end in failure — a cliché that exists because it too often happens to be true. Justin Trudeau, one of the world’s great progressive leaders, may be heading toward that moment. In a recent interview he acknowledged that every day he considers leaving his “crazy job” as Canada’s prime minister. Increasingly, the question is not if he will leave but how soon and how deep his failure will be when he goes.

At stake is something that matters more than one politician’s career: Canada’s contemporary liberal and multicultural society, which just happens to be the legacy of the prime minister’s father and predecessor, Pierre Trudeau. When you fly into Montreal, you land in Trudeau airport, and that’s because of Pierre, not Justin.

The threat to that liberal tradition is not all Justin Trudeau’s fault, of course. The right-wing tide overwhelming global politics has come late but with pent-up vigor to Canada. For several years now, polls have shown Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals at lows from which no Canadian political party has ever recovered in elections. In a recent by-election, in a key suburban district of the Greater Toronto Area, the Conservative Party beat the Liberals by a lopsided 57 percent to 22 percent, a swing of nine percentage points to the Conservatives.

But polls and by-elections can be poor predictors of election viability. A better indicator is the flummoxed figure of Mr. Trudeau himself, who seems increasingly out of touch in the new world of division and extremism.

Part of Justine Trudeau’s problem is simple exhaustion, both his own and Canadian voters’. He has been in government for almost eight and a half years. During that time, he has been one of the most effective progressive leaders in the world. His government cut Canada’s child poverty in half. He legalized marijuana, ending roughly 100 years of nonsense. He made large strides in reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians. He renegotiated NAFTA with a lunatic American president. He handled Covid better than most. You don’t have to squint too hard to recognize that he is one of the most competent and transformative prime ministers this country has ever produced.

Justin Trudeau talks to media in 2015: File Image

But an era has passed since the start of that halcyon time, when Mr. Trudeau stood in front of his first cabinet and, when asked why it was half female, answered, “Because it’s 2015.” Now a new generation has emerged, for which the liberal technocratic order his government represents has failed to offer a path to a stable, prosperous future and the identity politics he once embodied have withered into vacuous schism. The growing anti-Liberal Party sentiment of young people is the biggest threat to his electability.

His opponents are well aware of Mr. Trudeau’s unpopularity with young voters and have focused Conservative attacks on an issue especially important to that cohort: the housing crisis. The soaring real estate market, in which tiny homes in Toronto and Vancouver now regularly cost more than properties in Paris or New York, has been exacerbated by the Trudeau government bringing in over a million immigrants last year without having built the necessary infrastructure to support the communities receiving them.

For decades, Canada has been the only country in the world where the more patriotic citizens are, the more they support immigration. Liberal mishandling of immigration’s impact may well end this blessed state. The housing crisis is the epitome of Mr. Trudeau’s failure: It feels good — it feels righteous — to support immigration. Isn’t that the whole idea behind multiculturalism? But without the proper hardheadedness, without being frank about difficult realities, righteousness quickly sours.

“Freedom Convoy” of some 2,700 trucks protest: CBC Image

The first evidence of the prime minister’s weakness in the face of Canada’s growing polarization was the government response to the so-called Freedom Convoy in 2022, in which anti-vaccine demonstrators held Ottawa hostage for a month. His government decided to take a bureaucratic approach to the disruption, dithering while the truckers entrenched themselves in the city, then using the Emergencies Act to seize several of their bank accounts. A January federal decision found that Mr. Trudeau’s invocation of the act was “not justified.”

Other countries took much simpler approaches to their civil unrest in the aftermath of Covid restrictions. The French used tear gas. The moment a convoy set out from Los Angeles headed for Washington, in imitation of the Canadian convoy, the Biden administration called out the National Guard. Other countries know: There is a time for brute force.

The same fear of confrontation — which, to be fair to Mr. Trudeau, afflicts the entirety of Canadian culture and politics — motivated new online harms legislation, which he proposed in February in an attempt to regulate or at least somewhat contain the internet and social media, from revenge pornography and child sexual abuse material to hate speech. It is, unfortunately, an absurd document that seeks to impose virtue by fiat.

The maximum penalty for promoting genocide — a form of speech crime — is life imprisonment, meaning harsh punishments can be meted out for the vaguest and most subjective of definitions. Equally troubling is the measure that if a Canadian citizen “fears on reasonable grounds” that a hate crime will be committed, the individual can apply for an order that another person be subjected to court-mandated conditions on what that person may say.

No less a figure than Margaret Atwood described the proposed law as “Orwellian.” “It’s Lettres de Cachet all over again,” she wrote on X, referring to the king’s ability in prerevolutionary France to imprison without trial. The spirit behind the new law is the very worst of Canada: Be nice, or else. And it will do nothing to contain the disinformation wave that’s swelling.

Anti-Israeli demonstrators wave Palestinian flags: Image CBC

But more than any other event, it is the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that has exposed Mr. Trudeau’s inability to fight for liberal values. Since that day, the Canadian Jewish community has been subject to violence not seen since the 1930s. A synagogue has been firebombed, a Jewish school shot at, a Jewish hospital targeted by an antisemitic mob, a Jewish-owned bookstore vandalized, a Jewish neighborhood disrupted, a Jewish grocery store lit on fire.

A mob outside a Holocaust Museum in Montreal chanted, “Death to the Jews.” Mr. Trudeau’s response has been pleas for everyone to just get along. “This needs to stop,” he said, referring to the lobbing of a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue. “This is not who we are as Canadians.”

This litany of failures is all the more significant because of Mr. Trudeau’s name. At a moment of crisis for Canadian multiculturalism, he makes a poor contrast with his father. Pierre Trudeau was not just another Canadian politician; he passed the Charter of Rights and Freedoms while establishing Canada’s Constitution as its own and not subject to the British Parliament.

He made no-fault divorce and homosexuality legal. He instituted the official policy of multiculturalism, which made it a matter of law that Canadian citizens were encouraged to practice their religions and maintain their identities.

Pierre Trudeau might have been the most important architect of the liberal Canada, but he was also tough as hell. He famously invoked the Emergency War Measures Act against separatist terrorists in 1970, suspending civil liberties and bringing in the military. When asked by journalists how far he was willing to go, he said, “Just watch me.” Pierre Trudeau knew that the liberal order demands forceful and practical — and occasionally ugly — defense.

His son now seems to believe that telling people to be nice to one another will do. This weakness not only threatens the multicultural society his father founded; it threatens progressive values around the world. For many, Canada seemed a lone candle alight for the values of pluralism and liberalism as they have been extinguished elsewhere in the world.

Justin Trudeau does not have to call an election until 2025. He won elections against the odds before. But time is not on his side. It’s not Pierre Trudeau’s world anymore. It doesn’t much look like Justin Trudeau’s, either.

Source: NY Times

Justin Trudeau Continues to Fail Canadians on Key Issues

Justin Trudeau Continues to Fail Canadians on Key Issues

Related Topics:Canada Liberals Justin Trudeau

Up Next

Canada’s Conservative Leader Labels Justin Trudeau a “Wacko” Ejected from Parliament

Don't Miss

Biden Is Touring Collapsed Baltimore Bridge Where Recovery Effort Has Political Overtones

Politics

Trudeau Now Using Abortion Scare Tactics to Recapture Voters

Published

6 days ago

2024-09-29

Geoff Thomas

Justin Trudeau is trying to use abortion as a fear tactic as his popularity tanks - File Image

Despite Abortion being legal throughout the pregnancy with no criminal restrictions in Canada, Justin Trudeau is now trying to use abortion as a fear tactic to recapture voters as his popularity tanks.

On Saturday Trudeau warned that only he can protect access to abortion despite the fact that Canada is one of the few nations with no criminal restrictions on abortion which is publicly funded under the federal Canada Health Act and provincial health-care systems.

Justin Trudeau’s abortion rhetoric comes as Democrats south of the border are counting on abortion rights to carry them to victory this fall in election races across the country.

Now Trudeau is trying to employ the same abortion fear tactic used by US democrats to try and distract Canadians away from his failing policies and his tanking poll numbers in Canada.

According to a Leger poll, the Conservatives hold a 20-point lead over the Liberals. If an election were conducted today, Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives would receive 44% of the popular vote, Justin Trudeau and the Liberals 24%, and Jagmeet Singh and the NDP 17%.

Furthermore, 64% of respondents disapprove of Trudeau’s job as prime minister, while only 28% approve. While, 62% of Canadians feel Trudeau should resign, including 33% of Liberals, with only 23% believing he should remain.

David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data, shared a picture on social media demonstrating that when Quebec is removed from the equation, things get even worse for Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.

According to Abacus, in the remainder of Canada, the Conservatives have 50% of the vote, the NDP has 22%, and the Liberals have only 19%.

What was particularly noteworthy about the Angus Reid poll was their comparison of Liberal fortunes in metropolitan areas where the Liberals usually perform well, Brian Lilley of the Toronto Sun reports.

According to Lilly, the Liberals’ support has dropped by double digits in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal in the previous two years.

He claims that the byelections in Toronto-St. Paul’s and LaSalle-Emard-Verdun, in which the Liberals lost, were not isolated events, and that, according to an Angus Reid poll, the Liberals’ popularity in Toronto’s core has declined from 43% in 2022 to 33% now.

That puts the Liberals slightly behind the Conservatives, who are polling at 34% in Toronto’s core, he says.

In Toronto’s suburbs, the news is considerably worse for Trudeau, but much better for Poilievre. Voters in the 905 region surrounding Toronto are leaning firmly blue, with 45% planning to vote Conservative and 31% supporting the Liberals.

The Conservatives have 37% support in Winnipeg, followed by the NDP at 36% and the Liberals at 23%.

In Metro Vancouver, the Conservatives are substantially ahead, with the Liberals trailing severely in third place. On Canada’s so-called “left coast,” the Conservatives had 40% support in the Vancouver area, 30% for the NDP, and only 21% for the Liberals.

In reality, Trudeau is bringing American politics into the Canadian domain, as he always does when there is negative news.

As the American presidential race dominates the news cycle, Lilly believes Trudeau will begin to compare Poilievre to Donald Trump in the coming weeks.

Trudeau and the Liberals have been attempting to make that connection for more than a year, but it has failed with Canadians who recognise the assertion as nothing more than a Liberal falsehood.

Voters are increasingly tuning out and rejecting the Trudeau government. As this trend continues, Trudeau will make ever more ridiculous assertions in an attempt to frighten voters back into the Liberal camp.

As Trudeau Gaslights About a Great Economy Canadians See the Truth

As Trudeau Gaslights About a Great Economy Canadians See the Truth

Politics

Trudeau Calls Quebec Premier a Liar Over Mass Immigration

Published

1 week ago

2024-09-27

Geoff Thomas

Trudeau’s India Fiasco Shows He's Lost Control of Foreign Policy

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Quebec's premier of lying - File Image

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused Quebec’s premier of lying and saying this he has said he “knows aren’t true” about mass immigration.

His statement comes after Premier François Legault requested the Bloc Québécois to back the Conservatives’ non-confidence motion to overthrow Trudeau’s government, claiming that Trudeau has done nothing to halt mass immigration into Quebec.

“It is a shame to hear the (premier) of Quebec sharing things and declarations on immigration that he simply knows are not true,” Trudeau said in Montreal with French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday.

“We have worked together constructively, or we have certainly worked with members of his team constructively, over the past many, many months to take action in response to the challenges around immigration in Quebec.”

Despite the Bloc’s refusal to vote against Trudeau in the no-confidence vote, Legault has proposed making immigration a ballot-box question in the next federal election. He has asked all parties to promise to reducing the number of non-permanent residents in his province by half.

Trudeau stated on Thursday that his government has worked to limit the number of newcomers by closing a popular asylum seeker pathway, reimposing a visa requirement on visiting Mexican nationals, and limiting the number of new temporary workers and international students who arrive in the country.

Trudeau then shifted the burden to the provinces, claiming that while he has moved, his provincial counterparts have yet to submit a plan for reducing the temporary workers under provincial authority.

Premier Legault stated that in the last two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec under Trudeau’s immigration policy has doubled to 600,000 from 300,000, putting a strain on housing, schools, and public services.

Last month, Quebec’s premier placed a six-month moratorium on some low-wage temporary foreign worker applications in Montreal, but recognised that the move would only cut the number by around 3,500.

He has frequently urged Trudeau to lower the number of non-permanent residents subject to federal control from approximately 420,000 to 210,000, as well as to delegate additional immigration authorities to Quebec.

Legault was also in Montreal on Thursday for his own meeting with Macron, but he did not respond to reporters’ questions as he left.

Trudeau Survives No Confidence Vote Angering The Vast Majority of Canadians

Trudeau Survives No Confidence Vote Angering The Vast Majority of Canadians

Politics

Trudeau Survives No Confidence Vote Angering The Vast Majority of Canadians

Published

1 week ago

2024-09-26

Geoff Thomas

78% of Canadians want Justin Trudeau to step down as leader - File Image

Backroom talks between the separatist Bloc Quebecois and the socialist New Democratic Party helped Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau survive a vote of no confidence on Wednesday.

In the days and weeks ahead, Trudeau will confront more obstacles, as the Conservatives have pledged to launch another attempt to depose the government as early as next Tuesday.

Members of parliament voted 211 to 120 against the Conservative move to depose the Liberals and call for immediate elections after an angry debate in which they slammed fists on desks and insulted each other.

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, has been demanding an election ever since the socialist New Democratic Party (NDP) supposedly ruptured a coalition deal with the Liberals, making Trudeau’s Democrats susceptible.

The rising cost of living, the housing crisis, and the crime rate are all issues that Mr. Poilievre has accused Justin Trudeau of ignoring as Canada’s national debt has skyrocketed.

During Tuesday’s Commons discussion, Poilievre stated that Canada’s pledge had been “broken” “after nine years of Liberal government.”

However, Trudeau has been secretly working with other opposition parties to secure concessions that will allow him to retain power. These parties are essential for overthrowing the Liberals. Ignoring the fact that 78% of Canadians would like Justin Trudeau to step down as leader.

To avoid yet another political impasse, the New Democratic Party (NDP) swiftly regrouped with the Liberals after the vote of no confidence in order to enact capital gains tax legislation that would impact the vast majority of Canadians.

Another No Confidence Vote Coming

Next week, Poilievre will have another chance to topple the administration, but he has promised to keep trying. Even if it doesn’t work, he still has time to try again before the year is out.

In exchange for continuing to back the Liberals in Parliament past the end of October, the separatist Bloc Quebecois has also asked for certain concessions.

Through a combination with the far-left NDP party, Trudeau was able to unseat Poilievre’s two predecessors in 2019 and 2021 ballots, despite the majority of Canadians disapproving.

His administration would have remained in power until the latter half of 2025 had he struck a deal with the New Democratic Party to support the Liberals. However, the New Democratic Party (NDP) pulled out of the arrangement abruptly after seeing that its coalition with the Liberals was undercutting its own support.

Trudeau Hated in Canada

Recent polling by Angus Reid puts the Conservatives in a commanding lead over the Liberals; 43% of respondents want to vote Conservative, while 21% intend to vote Liberal. There is a 19% NDP presence.

On the other hand, Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchette announced on Wednesday that he would work to ensure the government’s survival until October’s conclusion.

But by that point, he warned, the Bloc would rebel against the Liberals unless their legislative goals had been advanced.

A governing party in Canada’s Westminster parliamentary system needs to keep the support of the majority of members in order to hold the confidence of the House of Commons.

Currently, there are 153 Liberal seats, 119 Conservative seats, 33 Bloc Quebecois seats, and 25 New Democratic Party seats.