Davin News Server

From Liberal Icon To MAGA Joke: The Waning Fortunes of Justin Trudeau

Justin Trudeau's career is the stuff of 21st-century political drama, with an arc that has taken him from glamorous liberal standard-bearer to the 
butt of jokes by President-elect Donald J. Trump and his acolytes.

He burst onto the international scene in 2015, a newly elected young leader of Canada.

And he spent the next decade building a brand around being a feminist, an environmentalist, a refugee and Indigenous rights advocate, pursuing the 
same message of change and hope as Barack Obama.

While he drew fawning reviews in the news media - including over his poster boy looks - his honeymoon with Canadians really lasted only about two 
years; by 2017, a series of controversies had already tarnished his picture-perfect image.

His party went on to lose the popular vote in two elections, in 2019 and 2021, requiring him to form minority governments propped up by a small 
opposition party. That support, too, has now evaporated.

Today, Mr. Trudeau finds himself - like other Western leaders - facing an angry constituency and losing control.

He will soon either call elections that he'll most likely lose, or he'll step down as leader of his party and as prime minister, and let a different 
leader take the Liberals to the ballot box next year.

The Prince
In Stephen Maher's 2024 biography of Mr. Trudeau, the author recalls separate occasions in which Mr. Trudeau's family members called him a "prince."

"I've always known my whole life that this would be available to me if I want," Mr. Maher quotes a young Mr. Trudeau as saying about entering 
politics.

When deciding where to start telling Mr. Trudeau's political story, chroniclers have several choices.

There's a 2012 charity boxing match, that he, then a young member of Parliament, won against a tough Conservative who had black belt in karate - 
people still bring up the fight.

Or the moment, in 2015, when he, as prime minister, unveiled the country's first gender-balanced cabinet and - asked why this mattered - quipped: 
"Because it's 2015." Male leaders around the world were put on notice.

One might also look back to the eulogy he delivered in 2000 for his father, former prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, for an early glimpse of 
Justin Trudeau the politician.

"We have gathered from coast to coast to coast. From one ocean to another, united in our grief to say goodbye," Mr. Trudeau, then 29, told a packed 
cathedral of mourners. "But this is not the end."

Mr. Trudeau, who turns 53 on Christmas Day, was born while his father was in his first of four terms in office.

The elder Trudeau had swept Canada off its feet in the late 1960s, in what came to be called "Trudeau-mania." Eventually, voters soured on him too, 
though he stayed in power for 16 years, and his legacy helped launch his son's career.

"There was this nostalgia that was associated with the name that really worked for Justin," said Darrell Bricker, a seasoned pollster and chief 
executive of Ipsos Public Affairs.

"We were coming out of the time of tempestuous Canadian politics run by a lot of old men," he added, "and even young men who just seemed old, so 
Justin was like a breath of fresh air."

Liberal Icon
The "Because it's 2015" comment on his cabinet's gender parity catapulted Mr. Trudeau to global political renown.

Glossy magazines swooned; Vogue ranked him as one of 2015's 10 "convention-defying hotties," referring to him as a "Canadian politician-dreamboat."

One former European leader from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies said early meetings with Mr. Trudeau were marked by people lining up to 
take selfies with him and treating him like some kind of rock star. The former leader asked not to be identified discussing past diplomatic meetings.

As the United States switched from the Obama to the Trump presidencies in 2016, Mr. Trudeau seemed to offer continuity with Mr. Obama's politics. Few 
moments exemplified this more than Mr. Trudeau's decision to offer refugees an open welcome in 2017, as Mr. Trump cracked down on immigrants.

"To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith," Mr. Trudeau posted on X, then known as Twitter. 
"Diversity is our strength."

At the time, Mr. Trump had issued his so-called Muslim ban curtailing travel to the United States for people from some Muslim-majority nations. Mr. 
Trudeau even went to the airport to personally welcome Syrian refugees arriving in Canada.

Mr. Trudeau was also at the forefront of post-colonial nations reckoning with the legacy of their treatment of Indigenous populations. While Mr. 
Trudeau has been criticized for not going far enough, it has been during his tenure that a reconciliation with Indigenous populations in Canada began 
in earnest.

Change All Around
But starting in 2017, his political fortunes at home had already started fading.

As he headed to the polls in 2019, Mr. Trudeau was rocked by scandal, including a luxurious free vacation he took that he failed to declare and 
videos from the 1990s and 2001 that surfaced showing him dressing up in blackface.

It took a toll: He could secure only a minority government, leaving his party dependent on allies to pass legislation.

And then came the pandemic. Critics describe Mr. Trudeau's push for restrictive measures as a key reason for the animus against him.

Within two years, in the middle of the pandemic, Mr. Trudeau called an early election believing it might return him to a majority government; he was 
wrong. He ended up again commanding only a minority of representatives in the House of Commons.

By that point, the Western world's center of political gravity was already shifting to the right over vaccine and restrictive mandates. In Canada 
that set off protests in various parts of the country that came to be known as the Freedom Convoy, including weeks of demonstrations in Ottawa, the 
capital, that paralyzed the city's downtown.

Canadians found themselves battered by persistent inflation, setting off an affordability crisis, while an open migration policy to bring in workers 
backfired, turning one of the world's most immigrant-friendly societies against newcomers.

Mr. Trudeau also faced turmoil on the family front, last year separating from his wife of 18 years, with whom he has three children.

A Walk in the Snow
Mr. Trump's election victory in November has brought into sharp focus Mr. Trudeau's weakened position. Mr. Trump has threatened to impose blanket 25 
percent tariffs on Canadian goods, which would devastate Canada economically. Mr. Trump has also been mocking Mr. Trudeau online, referring to him as 
a governor, and to Canada as the 51st state.

This time being a leader prepared to challenge Mr. Trump isn't working for Mr. Trudeau. "He caught a wave on his way in, and when you catch a wave, 
it can lift you up," Mr. Bricker said. "But on the other side, if you don't get off, it will ground you."

With elections required by October because of Canada's electoral rules, Mr. Trudeau's departure is increasingly seen as a foregone conclusion. The 
question is where this leaves his Liberal Party. The latest Ipsos poll, published Friday, found that the Liberals trail the Conservatives by 25 
percentage points.

On Monday, his deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland resigned with a bombshell letter, accusing him of engaging in "costly 
political gimmicks" and being ill-prepared to face the challenge posed by Mr. Trump.

Then on Friday, the small opposition party that has propped up his Liberal minority said it would bring a vote of confidence against it after 
Parliament resumes in January.

"Like most families, sometimes we have fights around the holidays," Mr. Trudeau mused at a party for Liberal staff in Ottawa on Tuesday, in a nod to 
Ms. Freeland's departure. "But of course, like most families, we find our way through it. You know, I love this country, I deeply love this party, I 
love you guys."

But the party, like the country, may no longer love him back. Mr. Trudeau's allies say the prime minister will take time over the holidays to decide 
his next steps.

A growing chorus is asking Mr. Trudeau to 'take a walk in the snow," a phrase that became part of political lore after his father, in February 1984, 
facing calls to resign, took a long walk in the snow.

When he came back, he had decided to resign.


=====

Canada:

'Worst In The World': Here Are All The Rankings In Which Canada Is Now Last

Most Unaffordable Housing, Highest Cell phone Bills And Worst Rate of Acute Care Beds, To Name A Few

If you spend any time on social media, it's likely that you've seen this 
graphic compiled by columnist Stephen Lautens that assembles 11 international 
indices which feature Canada near the top spot. "Canada is broken? I don't 
think so. Neither does the world," reads a caption.

Next time someone rants on how about how "broken" Canada is; or how badly we 
are doing on the international stage... share some facts.

Numbers don't lie, Felicia.

https://archive.is/o/LnFRL/https://twitter.com/DIGuideBradley/status/1554545079314010112

Naturally, it only tells a partial picture. While Canada may dominate abstract 
indices such as "quality of life" and "peace," there are plenty of far more 
empirical indicators in which we measurably rank as among the worst in the 
developed world.

There's plenty to like about Canada, but below is a not-at-all comprehensive 
list of all the ways in which we are indeed very broken.

WE HAVE THE MOST UNAFFORDABLE HOUSING IN THE OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is essentially a 
club of the world's 38 most developed countries. And when these 38 are ranked 
against each other for housing unaffordability, Canada emerges as the clear 
champion. OECD analysts rank affordability by comparing average home prices to 
average incomes, and according to their latest quarterly rankings Canada was 
No. 1 for salaries that were most out of whack with the cost of a home.

Housing by price to income ratio for the second quarter of 2022. That's Canada 
on the extreme right.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/840da40d6fa3b7fef6fcccdfc1637d24e0786760.webp

WE HAVE THE WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE WIRELESS COSTS

Every year, the Finnish telecom analyst Rewheel ranks the world's most 
expensive countries for wireless services. And last year, Canada once again 
dominated. Across several metrics, Canada was found to be the most expensive 
place in the world for mobile data. Analysts found that it would cost the 
average Canadian the equivalent of at least 100 Euros to obtain a cell phone 
plan with at least 100 gigabytes of mobile data. Across much of the EU, that 
kind of cell phone plan could be had for less than 40 Euros.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/822bcfe750687b1ef6288ee7df5606fd15629289.webp

Canadian telecoms charge more than 10 times as much for 100 gigabytes of mobile 
data as companies in France or Ireland.

Canadian telecoms charge more than 10 times as much for 100 gigabytes of mobile 
data as companies in France or Ireland. Photo by Rewheel

WE HAVE THE LOWEST RATE OF ACUTE CARE BEDS AMONG PEER COUNTRIES

Canada's health system was particularly walloped by COVID-19 due to the simple 
fact that most of our hospitals are at the breaking point even in good times. 
Multiple times during the pandemic, provinces were forced into shutdown by 
rates of COVID that had barely been noticed in better-prepared countries. A 
ranking by the Canadian Institute for Health Information provides one clue as 
to why. When ranked against peer countries, Canada's rate of per-capita acute 
care beds was in last place, albeit tied with Sweden. Canada has two acute care 
beds for every 1,000 people, against 3.1 in France and six in Germany.

TWO OF THE PLANET'S "BUBBLIEST" REAL ESTATE MARKETS ARE IN CANADA

For at least 15 years now, Canada has been a regular contender on rankings of 
overheated housing markets. And the latest UBS index of world cities with 
"bubbly" real estate markets is no exception. In their 2021 index, Toronto was 
second only to Frankfurt in terms of bubble risk, while Vancouver ranked sixth. 
Aside from Germany, Canada was the only country that saw two of its cities in 
the top ten.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/1961e904e18e8cb533ff42c2eae7beb611827bd4.webp

Only two cities in the entire Western Hemisphere qualified as likely "bubble 
risks," and they're both in Canada.

Only two cities in the entire Western Hemisphere qualified as likely "bubble 
risks," and they're both in Canada. Photo by UBS Global Real Estate Bubble 
Index 2021

WE RACKED UP COVID DEBT FASTER THAN ANYONE ELSE

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the most feverish global accumulation of debt 
in the history of human civilization. So it's rather remarkable that amidst 
this international monsoon of debt, Canada still managed to out-debt everyone 
else. Last year, analysts at Bloomberg tracked each country's rate of public 
and private debt accumulated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Canada came in with an overall debt burden equivalent to 352 per cent of GDP. 
While a handful of countries (Japan, France and Hong Kong) came out of the 
pandemic with higher overall debt burdens, Canada outranked all of them when it 
came to how quickly that debt had been accumulated.

Containers on rail cars waiting to be shipped east by rail at the Port of 
Vancouver Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Photo by (Photo by Jason Payne/ PNG)

https://archive.is/LnFRL/5b7e25218f55d343b998db94c6748b57312dafaf.webp

THE PORT OF VANCOUVER IS (ALMOST) THE MOST INEFFICIENT IN THE WORLD

Last year - just as the global supply chain crisis got going - the World Bank 
decided to rank the performance of the world's 370 major ports. Authors weighed 
factors such as how long the ports kept ships waiting, and how long crews took 
to unload a vessel. And when everything was added together, the Port of 
Vancouver ranked 368 out of 370. The only places with worse scores were the 
Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. And it's not like our other 
ports are much better. If Vancouver is too gummed up, you can always sail north 
to Prince Rupert, which ranks 339 out of 370.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/ac861be6fb2f37d1463e7670c232b5cd548d5395.webp

Take that, Los Angeles and Long Beach. Photo by World Bank Group


Queues at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Photo by Peter J. 
Thompson/National Post

https://archive.is/LnFRL/b32f7be38081069e5e696a0029996f6f3adaa760.webp

TORONTO PEARSON IS THE WORLD'S MOST-DELAYED AIRPORT

Flight delays are another category in which basically the entire world is 
feeling the pinch. And yet, Canada still managed to outdo all of them. Last 
month, CNN used data from the website FlightAware to figure out which airports 
were seeing the highest rates of flight delays. In the number one spot was 
Toronto Pearson, with 52 per cent of all flights out of the airport 
experiencing some kind of delay. And it was a commanding lead; the second-place 
finisher, Frankfurt, only managed to see 45.4 per cent of its flights delayed. 
Toronto was also a contender in flight cancellations; with 6.9 per cent of its 
scheduled flights never getting off the ground, it ranked fourth worst in the 
world.

WE'RE ONE OF THE WORLD'S WORST ECONOMIES FOR FOREIGN INVESTMENT

A 2020 study out of the University of Calgary tracked foreign investment flows 
into a cross-section of developed countries between 2015 and 2019. Virtually 
every country on the list saw a surge in foreign cash during that period; 
Ireland topped out the ranking thanks to its foreign investment climbing by 
more than 115 per cent. Only four countries actually saw a reduction in foreign 
investment: Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Canada. A report by the Business 
Council of Canada noticed the same trend. "Canada is the second-worst in the 
OECD on openness to foreign direct investment," it concluded.

https://archive.is/LnFRL/222c5fba154990485338650dcb55e413d85e080c.webp

WE DRIVE THE MOST FUEL-INEFFICIENT VEHICLES IN THE WORLD

In 2019, the International Energy Agency examined the fuel economy of the 
world's private car fleets. On almost every measure, Canada led the pack in 
driving unnecessarily huge, gas-guzzling vehicles. Per kilometre driven, the 
average Canadian burned more fuel and emitted more carbon dioxide than anyone 
else. Canadian cars were also the largest and (second only to the U.S.) the 
heaviest. While it would be convenient to blame this on Canada being a sparse, 
cold country with lots of heavy industry, our ranking was well beyond plenty of 
other countries where that was similarly the case.