Justin Trudeau: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Justin Trudeau: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[ https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025/01/06/J ... dium=email ]

A look at Trudeau’s legacy and what happens now that he is stepping down.

David Merner - January 6, 2025 - The Tyee

David Merner served on the national board of the Liberal party and was the 2015 Liberal candidate in the Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke riding. He joined the Green party ahead of the 2019 election.

EXCERPT: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today that he would step down once the Liberal party has chosen a new leader. Photo by Adrian Wyld, the Canadian Press.

As Justin Trudeau steps down, it’s a chance to look back at his legacy and ahead to the future political impact.

Trudeau’s biggest personal accomplishment was to lead “Team Trudeau” to victory over Stephen Harper’s cynical, tired government in 2015. I was a Liberal candidate on Vancouver Island in that election and originally thought that Trudeau was merely posing as a progressive and could not connect with Canadian voters.

I was wrong. Trudeau’s energetic campaign performances, particularly his outstanding leadership debate performances, were essential to the Liberals rising from third place in the polls to victory.

Campaigning on middle class tax cuts, electoral reform, the legalization of marijuana, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and moderate “short-term” budget deficits, the Liberals won a big majority. Trudeau then named Canada’s first gender-balanced cabinet, including Chrystia Freeland, Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould.

The single greatest domestic success of the Trudeau government’s first term was the implementation of the Canada Child Benefit, a massive increase in funding for families that lifted hundreds of thousands of Canadian children out of poverty.

The Trudeau government’s greatest international success was the effective management of Team Trump’s bullying.

Team Trudeau listened to and worked closely with expert public servants and effective provincial premiers, creating an impressively cohesive response to U.S. tariffs and tough trade negotiations.

Similarly, when COVID struck, the Trudeau government responded well, following the advice of professional public health experts to ensure that Canada avoided the carnage experienced by countries led by conservative demagogues and buffoons like the United States and the United Kingdom. . . . "

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