Justin Trudeau: The autumn of a liberal
The HinduOnce a liberal icon who represented the values of the ‘cultural Left’, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, now in the last year of his third term, is mired in a crisis of unpopularity, dissension and defections from within his Liberal Party fold. But in both the 2019 and 2021 federal elections — the latter called in September 2021 after Mr. Trudeau advised the country’s Governor General to dissolve parliament — the Liberal Party was reduced to leading a minority government. Liberal Party leaders within his caucus have called for his resignation and earlier this month, a key Minister and someone widely considered to be his successor, Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, resigned abruptly, calling Mr. Trudeau’s policies as “costly political gimmicks”. The Gist Recent approval ratings show that Justin Trudeau enjoys barely 26% support compared to the 63% he had in the early days of his first tenure His current unpopularity is tied to the problems related to the economy: issues such as raging inflation, a housing crisis and opposition to immigration have led to a significant decline in opinion for Trudeau Elections are supposed to be held in October 2025 but there is an increasing likelihood that the Liberal Party will seek a leadership change before that In September, the NDP had ended its 2022 agreement but Mr. Trudeau survived three no-confidence motions called by the Conservative Party since then, as the NDP and the federalist Bloc Quebocois have been reluctant to vote alongside the conservatives. Mr. Trudeau rode to power in Canada promising a liberal agenda and delivered on some issues that were dear to the “cultural Left”.