By Serge Schmemann
In politics, the pendulum never stops, and yesterday’s excitement becomes tomorrow’s handicap. Justin Trudeau should have known that: His father, Pierre Trudeau, bowed to public fatigue with his charisma and progressive policies in 1984 after 15 years as prime minister of Canada. Some of Justin Trudeau’s colleagues had urged him for some time to take a “walk in the snow,” a reference to what his father said he did before making his decision to step down.
Somewhat like his father, Justin Trudeau entered Canadian political life in a burst of excitement and hope. He was 43, handsome and fresh; his mantra was “sunny ways,” and he promised a return to the progressive vision that the Liberal Party championed in the 1960s and 1970s, one that his father’s successors then tried to erase.
His challenge in October 2015 to the hawkish Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, was “nothing less than an existential struggle over what it means to be Canadian,” Canadian author Guy Lawson wrote in The New York Times at the time. The Trudeau vision — in effect, a progressive Canada of universal medical care, bilingualism, multiculturalism and internationalism — won and, for a while, dominated.
But then the pendulum swung the other way and not only in Canada. Canadian voters began seeing Trudeau as too far left; they came to blame him for rising costs and housing shortages, which they linked to looser immigration policies. The pandemic did its damage; a few political scandals muddied his image; he and his wife separated; his approval ratings plummeted. The Liberal Party’s approval ratings fell to 20 percentage points behind the Conservatives.
With elections mandated by October, the Liberals under Trudeau had no chance. Announcing his resignation Monday, Trudeau said he would remain prime minister until the party chose a successor, which could take months.
But a vision turned sour is not a vision that was wrong. Much of what the Trudeaus, father and son, championed has become an indelible part of Canadian identity. So before saying au revoir to Trudeau, it’s worth reliving the high moments. Or the high moment.
Justin Trudeau, unlike his father, was not cerebral, and like any heir, he had to cope with the perception that he was just a privileged offspring cashing in on his name. He soon showed he was different, winning his first seat in Parliament in a working-class district in Montreal. But it was another act that really distinguished him forever from his papa or any other politician: He challenged a tough Conservative senator, Patrick Brazeau, known as Brass Knuckles, to three rounds in the boxing ring for charity.
Brazeau clobbered Trudeau in the first round. But then, in the best “Rocky” style, Trudeau took charge, and the bout was stopped to preserve Brass Knuckles. “I can hear it already,” said the commentator: “Trudeau for leader.”
It’s worth recalling that fight not only for its sentimental value but also because that pendulum never stops. And Trudeau has three children.
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