Once Again, Trudeau Prioritizes the Interests of Liberals Over Canada

The crisis facing Justin Trudeau is not the same as the crisis facing the country

Let’s get something out of the way, right off the top. Over the last few weeks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been facing a crisis.

He lost his Finance Minister. (Did she quit or was she fired? And at this point, does anyone care about the details?)

The Liberal caucus, which had been unfailingly loyal to Trudeau through so many struggles and scandals, has been in open revolt. (Which just goes to show that even the most delicate species of invertebrates can evolve a spine when faced with the potential of total extinction.)

And he has, for all intents and purposes, lost the confidence of the House of Commons. At the next available opportunity, every opposition party has pledged to bring his government down.

Under these circumstances, it would be reasonable for any prime minister to do as Trudeau has done — announce his eventual resignation, and prorogue parliament until a new Liberal leader can be elected.

But the problem is that the crisis facing Justin Trudeau is not the same as the crisis facing Canada.

Our next-door neighbour — which also happens to be our largest trading partner and the single most powerful state in the world — has re-elected an actual maniac who is not only threatening to destroy our economy with punishing tariffs, but is publicly toying with the idea of annexing our country.

Do I think the United States will actually invade Canada? No. But it’s fucking insane that’s even a question that we have to be pondering.

Canada needs an actual government in place to deal with the menace who will soon be re-occupying the White House. Instead, we’re stuck with a lame duck prime minister, a raft of ministers who will quit cabinet to pursue their leadership ambitions and no prospect of a functioning government until halfway through this year.

Trudeau could have — should have — made a different decision. A more responsible leader would ask the governor-general to call an election and let the Canadian people decide on who they want to represent them during this tumultuous time.

But that would risk the Liberals being wiped out in the process, a prospect too horrifying for Trudeau to even consider. Like so many members of the Liberal Party of Canada, Trudeau assumes that the interests of Liberals and of Canadians are one and the same.

If Canadians look like they might abandon the party that gave us the maple leaf flag and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then they must be stopped. Or at least delayed as long as possible.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Pollievre’s Conservatives or Singh’s NDP would have an easier time dealing with Trump. (And I’ll have a lot more to say about both parties in the coming weeks). But now’s the right time for Canadians to assess that for themselves. And I can’t think of a moment where we need a functioning government more than now. Instead, we’re stuck in political purgatory, while the Grits figure out which sucker will be tasked with dragging their party’s bleeding carcass through a summer election.

Of course, this is not the first time that Trudeau has put partisan interests first. He pledged that 2015 would be the last election conducted under first-past-the-post. Once it became clear that Canadians wanted a proportional representation system that wouldn’t benefit the Liberals, he scuppered the idea. And — infuriatingly — he stated during his resignation speech that his biggest regret was that he wasn’t able to bring in ranked-ballot voting, which would have assured Liberal supremacy for years to come.

Over the next few months, there will be considerable debate about Trudeau’s legacy, about the future of the Liberals and about what the other parties have to offer.

But the way he’s leaving office makes it clear that he continues to be a man willing to put the interests of party over patria, to the very last.