Canadiens were initially inspired, first by charismatic Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and later his son Justin, but eventually grew tired of both men.
The younger Trudeau remains in the Prime Minister’s office, but his governing Liberal Party shockingly lost a parliamentary election last week in a long-safe Montreal riding (district). A recent national poll pegged support for the opposition Conservative Party at 43 percent, with the Liberals far behind at 24 percent.
Trudeau won a House of Commons majority in 2015 but has formed minority governments after two subsequent elections. His nine-year tenure comes courtesy of the left-leaning New Democratic Party, which has backed the Liberals on no-confidence votes in parliament. The NDP also kept his father in power in the early 1970s.
Why such discontent in the Great White North? As people of the north, you’d think Canadians could keep their cool.
Trudeau won plaudits for his response to the COVID 19 outbreak. The PM emerged daily from his temporary home, a 21-room “cottage” on grounds of the Governor General’s residence in Ottawa, to brief countrymen and women on the pandemic. He grew shaggier, abiding by a ban on barbershops.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Trudeau observed after Liberals tanked in the recent byelections. One factor working in his favor: The center-left Liberals may have time to do the work.
The three opposition parties in Canada’s House of Commons cannot stand each other. The Conservatives, under a libertarian-spirited new leader Pierrre Poilievre, have tabled a no-confidence resolution that would bring down Trudeau’s government and force a new election. That vote would lose. Both the NDP and separatist Bloc Quebec will vote No, fearful of cuts in social programs and Poilievre’s open and overweening ambition.
The opposition leader exploded at NDP leader Jagmeet Singh during Commons debate on Wednesday. “He [Singh] is a fake, a phony, and a fraud” said Poilievre. “How can anyone ever believe what the sell-out NDP leader says in the future?”
Singh burst from his seat, stood in front of Poilievre shouting, “I’m here, bro.” House of Commons Speaker Craig Ferguson tried to calm angry MPs. “Canadians are watching us,” he admonished.
So what ails Canadians? Housing costs have soared. A young geologist friend, well paid, found he could not afford to buy a home in Vancouver, and decamped to digs in Squamish 40 miles to the north. Canada has its own immigration problem, witness 800,000 people allowed to temporarily live in Quebec. Many are students from abroad.
The country which pioneered Medicare for all faces a huge shortage of family physicians. The Trudeau government had been burdened with an unpopular carbon tax. “Ace the tax,” has become a Conservative battle cry.
As well, lots of Canadians feel left out. The Liberals rule from a power base in greater Toronto and Montreal, with some strength in greater Vancouver. They are very much an urban party, a ruling class often dubbed Canada’s “natural governing party.” Rural unrest (and American money) fueled a trucker caravan that occupied downtown Ottawa in protest against COVID-19 restrictions.
The Trudeaus have made Canadian government bilingual and instituted wide-ranging social programs. The Liberals are socially liberal, back to days where Pierre Trudeau legalized sex acts between consenting adults with the words: “The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.” Justin Trudeau marches in the Vancouver Pride parade and mugs for selfies.
Meanwhile, the Liberals have stayed on good terms with the country’s corporate elite. “Justin Trudeau will always cave to corporate greed,” said Singh after the NDP pulled out of a deal to back the Liberals on no-confidence votes.
Opposition parties on the left are backing Trudeau’s government in the non-confidence vote because “”Poilievre would be even worse,” in words of Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Franco’s Blanchet. “I never support the Liberals, so help me God,” Blanchet added. “[That] I go against the Conservatives in the confidence vote is only about Poilievre and his huge ambition for himself.”
Justin Trudeau will survive the confidence vote, but odds are that Canada’s voters — when they get a say — will vote him out of office and turn Canada to the right.
