As expected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced out by his Liberal party after staring down a total disaster in the upcoming election, expected to be this spring. Trudeau announced Monday morning that he will step aside as party leader and PM after the party chooses a new leader in the coming months and in the meantime parliament will be prorogued (suspended) with all bills and legislation and committee work thrown in the gutter. Trudeau’s announcement was widely expected as his poll numbers continued to slide and there was an internal party revolt that wanted him out immediately so he did the expected so that the party can choose a new leader to lead them into next election with minimum damage as front-leading Conservatives are still leading by a mile and are expected to form the next government. Trudeau’s star quickly started to fade after the COVID pandemic. Coupled with burgeoning ethical issues and travel troubles as well as corruption and economic mismanagement— including an embarrassing trip to India (a set-up by the Modi government which would become the top foreign interference in Canada) and a breach of the federal gifting rules related to a Christmas trip to the Aga Khan’s private island — the shine started to dim.

By R. Paul Dhillon – Editor DESIBUZZCanada

OTTAWA – As expected, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was forced out by his Liberal party after staring down a total disaster in the upcoming election, expected to be this spring.

Trdueau announced Monday morning that he will step aside as party leader and PM after the party chooses a new leader in the coming months and in the meantime parliament will be prorogued (suspended) with all bills and legislation and committee work thrown in the gutter.

Trudeau’s decision comes after more than nine years in the country’s top job and nearly 12 years at the helm of his party. He announced his departure at Rideau Cottage on Jan. 6, saying that every moment he’s woken up as prime minister he’s been inspired by Canadians, who he said deserve a real choice, and it’s become clear to him that he “cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election.”

Trudeau’s announcement was widely expected as his poll numbers continued to slide and there was an internal party revolt that wanted him out immediately so he did the expected so that the party can choose a new leader to lead them into next election with minimum damage as front-leading Conservatives are still leading by a mile and are expected to form the next government.

This move follows a tumultuous fall sitting of Parliament and sets the ball in motion towards the end of Trudeau’s historic political tenure, one marked by both substantial social and policy change, as well as controversy and fluctuating public support.

Trudeau’s political journey bergins in 2007 even after he remarked that he’s “never” be a politician, after watching what his father Pierre Elliott went through as prime minister. 

By 2007, Trudeau went from helping the Liberals campaign, to winning the nomination(opens in a new tab) for the Quebec riding of Papineau.

In 2008, he won the seat and headed to the House of Commons, defying pundits’ predictions in a way that would foreshadow his ability to do so many more times in the years ahead. Trudeau’s ascent from backbench opposition MP to party leader was then relatively swift.

While 2009 to 2011 were years the Liberal party spent in the political wilderness, come 2012, fresh off a charity boxing victory against Sen. Patrick Brazeau, Trudeau launched his leadership bid.

In April 2013, at age 41, he clinched the party’s top job with nearly 80 per cent of the vote, promising “to do the hard work that is required.”

From there, he endeavoured to rebuild the divided Liberal brand, with polls showing his party on a steady upward trajectory since Trudeau put himself forward as its future face(opens in a new tab).

Kicking off his pre-campaign push to sell the Liberals as a viable change option to then-prime minister Stephen Harper’s aging government, Trudeau made the sudden announcement in February 2014 that he was expelling all Liberal senators from the party’s caucus in a bid to make the upper chamber more non-partisan.

The surprise move at the time sparked what a decade later has been cemented as a largely independent Senate.

When Harper called the 2015 campaign months early, framing the race as being about who has “the proven experience today to keep our economy strong and our country safe,” the expectations for Trudeau’s performance were fairly low, with the three-term incumbents quick to frame him as “just not ready.”

But, after the longest federal campaign in recent history — which saw Trudeau both work a crowd with his sleeves rolled and take on his opponents in a series of more buttoned-down debates — the Liberals far exceeded political expectations and won 184 of 338 seats on Oct. 19, 2015.

In a move that has already cemented its place in Canadian history books, Trudeau’s first act as prime minister was to appoint a gender-balanced cabinet(opens in a new tab), remarking infamously at its swearing-in ceremony, “because it’s 2015!”

His win and early overtures to advance feminist policies earned Trudeau the attention of international media in a way that wasn’t matched until nearly a decade later when he and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau announced they were separating (opens in a new tab).

From there, his team set out to enact the suite of sizable policy commitments they’d made during the campaign.

This saw the Liberals reinstate the census, roll out the Canada Child Benefit — lifting hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty as part of a broader effort to “grow the middle class” — and sign the Paris Agreement on climate change.

But Trudeau’s star quickly started to fade after the COVID pandemic. Coupled with burgeoning ethical issues and travel troubles as well as corruption and economic mismanagement— including an embarrassing trip to India (a set-up by the Modi government which would become the top foreign interference in Canada) and a breach of the federal gifting rules related to a Christmas trip to the Aga Khan’s private island — the shine started to dim.