Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is weeks away from leaving the Canadian political scene.
Most Canadians will say: “Good Riddance.”
Trudeau was behind the eight ball with many Canadians when he entered politics. His father Pierre, the prime minister, was disliked/hated by many perceiving him as arrogant and hated for his introduction of the metric system.
Others didn’t think it right for the son of a prime minister to become PM – the sins of the father were visited upon the son.
Justin, a young fresh face promising reforms, was elected.
Just how will future historians view Justin Trudeau?
His accomplishments will be tempered by his failures.
An avowed supporter of gender equality, his first cabinet was half male and half female. But he failed miserably in dealing with his female justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould over the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
That failure was compounded when his female health minister resigned in protest.
His attempted demotion of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland cemented the perception of his feminist views.
Along the way, Trudeau collected few points for scandals: accepting free vacations from wealthy persons dealing with government. And there was the We-too charity scandal where he denied family members were paid by the charity that was working for government.
For all these incidents Justin Trudeau will likely be labelled wanting in the area of ethics.
His promise to reform first-past-the-post elections was never achieved.
Even with a string of faults, Trudeau and the Liberals made several significant legislative accomplishments, albeit some controversial.
His most controversial was the hated carbon tax intended to reduce marginal use of petroleum fuel.
Other controversial ones were assisted dying legislation, legalization of cannabis and the run-up of debt to keep Canada from a long severe recession after COVID-19.
He was possibly perceived as a good prime minister for Indigenous people, negotiating many financial settlements and slowly working towards reconciliation.
Achieving the goal of poverty reduction came with the Child Care Benefit which took 400,000 children out of poverty.
Also assisting poverty reduction was the introduction of $10 a daycare across Canada. The problem with $ 10-day care has been providing enough spaces to meet the demand. Some provinces like Alberta are dragging their feet on implementing the plan.
Most industrialized countries have a public program for pharma care and dental care.
With a push from the NDP, that kept his minority government in power, Trudeau legislated those two social programs for Canada. Both assist seniors and youth.
The dental program, after some concerns, appears to be cemented in place.
The pharmacare program languishes with no province yet signing an agreement to implement the program.
Both pharmacare and dental care could be axed if Pierre Poilievre becomes prime minister and carries out promises to cut spending.
To implement his social programs Trudeau piled on even more debt, explaining it away because Canada’s debt situation isn’t as bad as other industrial nations.
(I think) that Canadians don’t seem to care about that. They care about inflated grocery costs, inflated rent and mortgage costs.
Trudeau, just like the Democrats in the United States, got the blame even though no national government seemed to be able to control inflation caused by the Covid-19 years.
In summary: (I personally) think future historians will view Trudeau as needing better interpersonal skills with his heart in the right place and granted marks for game-changing legislation in child care, child benefits and pharma/dental care.
Ron Walter can be contacted at [email protected]
