Canada’s next PM ‘will speak Trump’s language’, Conservatives say

JUSTIN Trudeau’s resignation as Canadian PM will leave the Commonwealth nation with a “stronger leader who can speak Trump’s language”, a leading political strategist said last night.

Trudeau, 53, relinquished leadership of Canada’s leading Liberal party yesterday, citing ‘internal battles”.

But his fall from political grace after almost decade at the top followed months of plummeting polls, as young Canadian males across the ethnic divide abandoned the so-called “King of Woke” for pursuing a progressive agenda at the expense of tackling deep-rooted economic issues such as the cost of housing and spiralling inflation.

Just 14 per cent of Canadians believed Trudeau was capable of standing up to Trump following the US President-elect’s threa​t to impose steep 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports as part of his “America First” policy,

It was, however, the resignation of key cabinet ally Chrystia Freeland last month which set the wheels of Trudeau’s demise into unstoppable motion.

The deputy PM and finance minister delivered her bombshell just hours before she was due to release the country’s economic plan ahead of Trump’s inauguration.

At the heart of her decision was concern that Trudeau was prioritising tax breaks and other spending measures to shore up policy support – which she dubbed “costly political gimmicks”- instead of keeping Canada’s fiscal powered dry to meet Trump’s challenge head-on.

“The resignation of the cabinet minister he most relied upon, who criticised the total lack of focus on how the government was spending money, was the trigger for Trudeau’s departure, but it wasn’t by any means the only factor,” said conservative strategist Mitch Heimpel, who was director of parliamentary affairs for former Canadian Conservative leader Erin O’Toole.

Shortly after Freeland’s resignation, it emerged that Canada’s fiscal deficit had reached an unprecedented C$61.9 billion (£34.5 billion) – 50 per cent more than projected by Trudeau’s Government.

Largely, this was due to anticipated pay-outs for legal settlements involving Canada’s indigenous population and the Pandemic.

The latter, of course, was a price paid by many governments battliing the pandemic

But it was his unwillngness to address the mounting crisis that proved fatal.

Trudeau was elected in 2015 on the back of a so- called “Obama wave” and single-handedly reversed the fortune of the ailing Liberal Party.

A darling of the progressive left, he pledged to make Canada – which could boast that half of the residents of its five biggest cities were born abroad – the world’s “first post-national state”, and even appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, which carried the headline “Why Can’t He Be Our President?”

Within two years he was leading amendments to Canada’s human rights act to add gender expression and gender identity as protected grounds – sparking accusations by psychology professor Jordan Peterson that people could be imprisoned for not using the correct pronouns to address someone.

Later that year he was reprimanded for breaking conflict of interest rules after accepting a paid-for holiday on an island owned by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Sunni Muslims, as well as helicopter flights and a private jet trip.

He batted off the emergence of numerous photos in 2019 showing a younger Trudeau in blackface and, despite his pledges to restore relations with the indigenous community, he missed the country’s first national day of truth and reconciliation to enjoy a family holiday.

In 2020 Trudeau found himself facing his third ethics scandal when it emerged that a charity, WE, which was awarded a substantial contract by the Canadian government, had paid Mr Trudeau’s wife, mother and brother to appear at its events.

In 2021 he evoked the Emergency Act which gave the government the power to freeze the bank accounts of anyone involved in vaccine mandate protests without a court order – branded as a human rights abuse by Amnesty International Canada.

it is little wonder, political commentators say, that in June of last year Trudeau’s approval ratings had plummeted from from 63 per cent when he was first elected to just 28 per cent.

“When it comes to broadly in Canada, we’re seeing a significant shift in how male voters are approaching elections,” said Mitch Heimpel.

“Trudeau has seen the greatest decline in support among young men, and it’s pretty much across ethnic board.

“They list his progressive agenda but also economic concerns.”

According to polls last month, some 47 per cent of Millennials would vote for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, prodded by high inflation, a cost-of-living crisis.

That same percentage of Millennials today believe that home ownership is unattainable in a country where the cost of an average house reached £465,000 just two years ago.

“Canada isn’t alone in facing these problems – the problem for Trudeau is that Millennials considered he was ignoring them to focus on his progressive agenda,’ he said.

On top of that was the “looming threat of new tariffs from the United States”, said Heimpel, adding: “Polling was starting to show that Canadians didn’t believe Justin Trudeau was the right leader to deal with – there was even polling that consistently showed that more Canadians approved of Trump, which really is a damning indictment.”

Trudeau will remain in office until a leadership contest choses a successor. Contenders are expected to include former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney.

But with elitism and establishment both political turn-offs in the current climate, Poilievre’s 25 point lead (at 44 per cent) appears unassailable.

And Trudeau’s political legacy will be to see the same Liberal Party he resuscitated from third to first place in 2015 slink back to third place.

“Poilievre will feel emboldened to take a harder line in terms of defending Canada and Canadian interests,’ said Heimpel.

“But he is also likely to see see similar problems in terms of how Canada operates to what Americans have long complained about – things like border security an China.

“There has been a lot of news recently about how China has interfered with Canadian last ​two federal elections and that has hardened public opinion against Beijing.

“I’m sure the new US administration would prefer an ally in any Nato capital – but especially Ottawa – that sees China the way they do.”

He added: “I suspect we’ll get fewer ’51st State’ Tweets.”