EDITORIAL – Did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blow it by quitting too soon?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces his resignation Jan. 6, 2025.
An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.
ONE CAN’T HELP but notice that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is good in times of crisis. He certainly demonstrated it during COVID, when he stood in front of TV cameras day after day to provide assurances that people would be looked after and the country would get through it.
He’s doing it again with tariffs, and getting high marks from the public for it. Trudeau is showing the right combination of willingness to negotiate, and resolve that Canada won’t be bullied.
It’s not easy with a man like Trump, especially since the two have a history of not particularly liking one another. As we all know, Trump deals generously with those who bend the knee and kiss the ring and shower him with compliments. As for those who stand up to him, they immediately become his enemies.
At any rate, the popularity of Trudeau and his Liberal party are making an amazing comeback. For many months they’ve dragged behind the Conservatives in popularity. Way behind. The Conservatives, with Pierre Poilievre at the helm, have been widely expected to annihilate the Liberals in the coming federal election. The Liberals weren’t even guaranteed a second-place finish.
That’s all changed now, thanks to Trump. He and his tariffs and his ridiculous 51st-state blather have made him more disliked in Canada than ever. He’s also aroused a sleeping patriotism in Canadians. We want our country to stand up to him, to tell him to get lost, and we want a leader who will do it.
Trudeau is currently filling the bill. Public opinion polls show attitudes towards him are changing. More importantly, they’re changing who people say they’ll vote for in the election. So, did Justin pull the plug too soon? Like his father Pierre, should he reconsider his decision to resign as Liberal leader and prime minister?
It’s an interesting thought but not one that has much chance to take hold. First of all, Trudeau the younger appears committed to carry through with his decision. Secondly, polls indicate that while he and Trump together are giving the Liberals a major boost, they don’t say — at least yet — that the Liberals with Justin as leader could beat Poilievre and the Conservatives.
But what they do say is that the Liberals with Mark Carney as leader could win a majority. Outstanding turnaround from being behind the Conservatives by at least 30 points over a long period of time.
So, Trudeau will go. But he’ll go at the end of what may be his finest hour. If only he had shown this kind of leadership consistently throughout the 10 years he was given to prove himself.
Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
It could also be that Canadians are getting a preview of what can happen if you have a government led by a populist wacko.
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It is pretty obvious the new American government doesn’t want another liberal government in power in Canada. Economic disruptions will continue unless Canada changes political course.
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“should he reconsider his decision to resign as Liberal leader and prime minister?”
He might, but he shouldnt follow thru on it.
Well … in reality it simply wont work as its too late, but would the opposition parties would have a conniption if he tried … oh ya … imagine the foaming blather Poilievre would get himself worked up to.
Thats not to say Justin couldnt pull a daddy move, and come back when the fickle Canadian voter loses their memory, a few years on.
Nice hypothesis, but that not the fun news today;
If Freeland won the Liberal leadership, Trump would have a tantrum.
Its no secret he hates her … because 1/ she’s a woman. 2/ Shes a woman who has skill and power, and 3/ shes a woman that actually beat him very soundly at what he thinks is his game … making deals.
If he was normal he would be afraid of her … but he isnt normal in the slightest, so he just dislikes and resents her, because she kicked sand in his face.
Although Carney may today be the frontrunner and might be best for the Liberal party in the election … a situation where Freeland would likely get the job of beating the Donald up again in negotiations. Beyond that, it would simply be fun to see her face up to him as PM and watch him squirm.
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Other than that he should never have been elected in the first place, he should have quit or been punted long ago. To name just a few things, he has embarrassed this country time and again, been caught in numerous corruption scandals and outright lies, never had a fiscal plan, admitted to not thinking about monetary policy, and characterized small business people as mere tax dodgers. I can’t wait to see him go. His heir-apparent Mark Carney will, if anything, be worse, as Trudeau’s hand-picked successor. I only hope the people of Canada aren’t dumb enough to be fooled a fourth time.
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Wasn’t Mark Carney hand picked by Harper to head the Bank of Canada? Wasn’t he also hand picked by David Cameron, the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be the first non-Briton to be the Governor of the Bank of England in its 300yr existence? He’s one of the world’s leading economists, but if somebody from Kamloops says he’ll be worse than what we have, well it must be true.
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Carney’s current plans for Canada re taxation and environmental policy are enough to put the final nails in Canada’s economic coffin. The Trudeau regime has already made an excellent start, sacrificing our “post-national state” economy on the altar of climate alarmism. Carney intends to ramp that up, not dial it back. I can’t think of another resource-rich country, oil-rich and socially-vaunted Norway included, that self-sabotages in the way that Canada does. Want to raise Canada’s per-capita GDP? Clear up the bureaucracy and ridiculous multiple regulatory assessments/reviews and get what we have resource-wise to market instead of throwing up roadblocks. “There’s no business case for LNG” from silver-spoon Trudeau, with self-admitted no concerns about per-capita GDP or monetary policy, just doesn’t cut it.
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Carney got his PhD in economics from Oxford, where did you get yours? Boris Johnson, another Conservative Prime Minister, appointed Carney as the head of finance of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (if you’re counting at home folks that’s the 3rd Conservative Prime Minister to appoint him to head of a country’s monetary department), he’s an expert in the climate economy, don’t you think that would be kinda useful moving forward in the 21st century? Ken could you please present us with your bona fides for a comparison since you know so much about Carney’s platform, one which he hasn’t yet announced.
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You are right Mac. However it is not just about the technical capabilities of the candidate that matters. While I consider myself quite a liberal thinker I am also quite turned off by the woke narrative of the “official” liberals.
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The old head has been cut off, once elected leader of his party Carney will be by far the smartest leader of any party in the country, I’ll take the smart guy over a loudmouth any day.
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Mac, my bonafides are almost 40 years of self-employment, making mortgage payments and other bill payments, daily life in the business world, paying ever-rising taxes on everything, and watching government confiscate and waste bigger chunks of my modest earnings every year. I believe Canadians should get to decide where to spend their money, not have a we-know-better-than-you government decide for them. Don’t lecture and make fun of me like I’m some kind of dummy because I don’t have a doctorate from a famous university. I’ll take the common-sense guy that understands average Canadians and the financial pressures they are under thanks to 9+ years of Liberal policy with no thought given to economics and monetary policy for working Canadians (Trudeau’s words, not mine) over the Oxford ivory tower-dweller or the Montreal silver-spoon every day, thank-you. They have no concern about where their next meal, rent, or mortgage payment is coming from. Most Canadians do, but this government doesn’t get that.
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All kidding aside Ken, Alberta is pumping more oil now than ever. With the twining of the Trans-Mountain we supposedly send more than 50% of current production to China. And as far as other mining operations go we are producing more and more of our natural riches. So I am not sure if your argument over stifling resources extraction holds any truth.
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My understanding is that we are still sending around 90% of our oil exports to the US, which means at a discounted price. Canada will never make any difference on a global scale to climate change, and climate change is a whole other argument that is best left to another day. Yes, we need to become more economically self-sufficient. Does Trump have our attention now? You bet he does. Can we continue with unattainable carbon targets and electric mandates without the infrastructure to back them up? Nope. Do we need to get LNG to market and refine more oil here in Canada, even if it involves building more pipelines? Yes, yes we do. Trudeau has been burning Canada down for almost ten years with his idiotic global virtue-signaling while Canadians fall further behind, and it will get worse with Carney as un-elected PM.
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FYI: He didn’t quit! He was forced to step down and WE ALL KNOW THAT! I saved screen shots and pics as proof so get the facts straight!
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