Snowing in New York City and Trudeau is Out
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| Adamfoxie pic credit |
Justin Trudeau’s weakened position came into sharp focus with Donald J. Trump’s election victory in November.
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.
Mr. Trudeau spent a decade building a political brand around being a feminist, an environmentalist, and an advocate for refugees and Indigenous people, pursuing the same message of change and hope as Barack Obama. But Mr. Trudeau’s brand, which appears to antithetical to Mr. Trump’s, is no longer working for him.
“He caught a wave on his way in, and when you catch a wave, it can lift you up,” Darrell Bricker, a seasoned pollster and chief executive of Ipsos Public Affairs, 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 had been seen as a foregone conclusion. The question is where this leaves his Liberal Party.
An Ipsos poll, published in late December, found that the Liberals trail the Conservatives by 25 percentage points.
Last month, 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. A few days later, the opposition party that has propped up his Liberal minority said it would bring a no-confidence vote 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 last month, 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.”
A growing chorus has been 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
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