Political unrest in Canada
Canada’s Political Turmoil
Political turmoil in Canada
Canada’s prime minister gained global renown 10 years ago for his unabashedly progressive politics. But at home, voters turned sour on him long ago.
Canada’s prime minister gained global renown 10 years ago for his unabashedly progressive politics. But at home, voters turned sour on him long ago.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada walking to the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.Credit…Chris Wattie/Reuters
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By Matina Stevis-Gridneff
Reporting from Toronto
Justin Trudeau’s career is the stuff of 21st-century political drama, with an arc that has taken him from glamorous liberal standard-bearer to the butt of jokes by President-elect Donald J. Trump and his acolytes.
He burst onto the foreign scene in 2015, as Canada’s newly elected young leader, whose father had also been a popular minister.
And she spent the next decade building a symbol as a feminist, environmentalist, defender of the rights of refugees and indigenous peoples, pursuing the same message of replacement and hope as Barack Obama.
While he drew fawning reviews in the news media — including over his poster boy looks — his honeymoon with Canadians really lasted only about two years; by 2017, a series of controversies had already tarnished his picture-perfect image.
His loss of seats in Parliament in the next two elections, in 2019 and 2021, forced him to form minority governments subsidized by a left-wing opposition. This support has also evaporated.
Today, Trudeau finds himself – like other Western leaders – facing a population and squandering control.
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