The sheen has rubbed off the Prince Charming of international politics with predictions that he will resign today. From the Guardian:
The Globe and Mail newspaper cited three sources as saying that Trudeau, 53, would quit as head of the ruling Liberal party after nearly a decade in office.
It said one of the sources had recently spoken to the prime minister and believed he intended to step down before an emergency meeting of party members on Wednesday, “so it doesn’t look like he was forced out by his own MPs”.
The Toronto Star said it had also confirmed that Trudeau was “expected to signal his intentions to step aside as early as Monday”, citing what it said was a senior source.
Trudeau’s popularity has plummeted amid record inflation, an acute housing crisis, high food prices and voter fatigue with incumbent politicians. Recent polling put the Liberals at 16% support, their worst pre-election standing in more than a century, with the opposition Conservatives coming out on top.
At the end of October, almost two dozen backbench Liberal MPs signed a letter calling on Trudeau to step down, with the party fearing a seismic electoral defeat in the federal election scheduled for next year.
His political horizons darkened in mid-December with the shock resignation of his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, who left with stern words for the prime minister, questioning his ability to guide Canada through Donald Trump’s “America first” economic nationalism, including a threat of 25% tariffs on Canada.
“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” she said in a departing letter, which questioned whether the government understood the “gravity of the moment”.
The core problem seems to be that the Canadian government massively increased immigration levels to cope with an ageing population and a skill shortage. This was a sensible enough idea, except there was not enough housing for all the new immigrants, dramatically increasing house and rental costs. As the second largest country in the World after Russia, you would think Canada would have no shortage of room, but the problem is most people are living in a few key cities and regions.
As in Ireland, the key question is: Why is it so hard to build houses these days?
Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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