CRESCIA: And how unready Mr. Trudeau was!

Justin Trudeau will be remembered as one of the worst prime ministers in Canadian history. Having borrowed the idea of "sunny ways" from an earlier Liberal prime minister (Sir Wilfrid Laurier) he took it and ran with it. Yet, he leaves behind a country grappling with serious economic challenges, significant deficit spending to sustain the economy, and a recession, and now facing protectionist policies from the Trump administration.

From the very beginning his political career has been marked by poor decision-making and a lack of qualifications for the country's most demanding job.

Back in 2015, when Trudeau was preparing to run against Conservative leader Stephen Harper, Canadians were warned about his leadership.

The Conservatives released an attack ad that remains remarkably prescient. In the ad, four individuals are seated in a boardroom reviewing resumes. When they come across Justin Trudeau's, one person points out that he has never "balanced a budget." Another adds that he has never "met a payroll" or had to make a "tough choice." The ad concludes with the voiceover: "Justin Trudeau is just not ready."

During the 2015 election, Time magazine published a 2001 yearbook photo of Justin Trudeau wearing brown face at an Arabian Nights-themed party. Another image from the 1990s showed him in blackface. Trudeau apologized for these incidents, but shortly after, a new video of him wearing blackface surfaced. At the time, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer questioned Trudeau’s judgment and said he was "unfit to govern Canada." These images showcase a profound hypocrisy as he positioned himself as a champion of social justice causes all the while having grown up as an over-entitled young man who well into his twenties played blackface games without realizing the consequences of his actions.

Another episode that demonstrated reckless decision-making and a tyrannical streak occurred during the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa. Protesters and truckers surrounded the Parliament buildings, disrupting the flow of traffic and life in the capital. Trudeau refused to meet with its leaders but, during the same period, in the middle of a pandemic, greeted and kneeled at a Black Lives Matter protest. 

Trudeau seemed to forget that as prime minister he should respect other people's viewpoints, listen to them, and seek to defuse situations in a crisis and not escalate them. Had he met with protesters it might have prevented him from becoming the first prime minister to invoke the Emergencies Act that gave the government broad powers to arrest anyone without legal due process. As a result, 200 protesters were arrested, 115 vehicles were towed, bank accounts were frozen, careers were ruined, individual freedoms were taken away and the protest was dismantled.

When one examines the background of recent successful Canadian Prime Ministers, figures like Brian Mulroney who was the VP of an iron ore Company; Stephen Harper, a masterful strategist who united the Conservative party; and Jean Chretien a lifelong politician who lacked charisma but made up for it with shrewd decision making allowing him to work in various ministries including finance minister before becoming Prime Minister. In contrast, Trudeau has failed to develop the necessary skill set to become a successful manager of an economy worth over $2 trillion in GDP, making it the ninth-largest economy in the world. Instead, he relied heavily on image-making and a "woke" agenda that felt good when interest rates were near zero and the government spent wildly during the pandemic.

Trudeau’s ability to make dumb decisions became the rule and not the exception in his government. From his decision to take a family trip to visit the Aga Khan, interfering in the SNC- Lavalin case, and a plethora of scandals his egregious decision-making continued to the end of his incompetent rule. By refusing to call an election when polls consistently indicated that the country wanted him to resign he held on hoping to manipulate his way back into power. It took his Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to plunge the final dagger in his back upon learning she was fired.

By hanging on too long and putting himself above his party and country he has guaranteed that the Liberals will likely suffer a heavy loss in the next election, relegating them to third-party status and leaving them in the political wilderness for years. His decision to prorogue Parliament until the end of March leaves the Liberals with little time to prepare for a competitive race. In all likelihood, they face a spring election that requires hundreds of millions in funding, the replacement of MPs who have resigned, and a robust election infrastructure across the country.

The most damaging consequence of not calling an election is that Trump enters office on January 20th, leaving Trudeau as a lame-duck Prime Minister who oversees a government in tatters and unable to effectively deal with border security or counter Trump tariffs.

Trudeau’s poor decision-making has been fostered by the Liberal Party's acceptance of his cult of personality which has led MPs to remain silent when they could have made a difference earlier. This has resulted in the mismanagement of their departments: The Ministry of Immigration lost track of over 4.9 million immigrants whose Visas are expiring. The Ministry of Housing faces a shortage of 300,000 housing units per year according to TD Economics.  And the Ministry of Public Safety is no longer focused on preventing crime. In 2022, twenty-nine percent of homicides were committed by a person on house arrest or parole, and violent crime has increased by thirty percent over the past decade.

It will take years of effective governance to regain the trust of Canadians who believe democracy has become too focused on a narrow elitist agenda centered on climate change and identity politics often imposed on voters. True leadership involves efficient management of government ministries, uniting the country, and providing a clear vision for Canada's future. Currently, the country lacks leadership and its future prosperity is at risk.