The people of Canada have roared – but Trudeau plugs his ears. Historic new polls confirm the Prime Minister’s time is up. An astounding three-fourths of Canadians handed Trudeau a vote of no confidence. Even Liberal loyalists waver.
Yet incredulously, Trudeau remains deaf to the people’s verdict. He defiantly vows to grasp power at any cost. But how long can this disconnected arrogance survive the public’s rising fury?
With Conservatives surging and his NDP allies scattering, Trudeau faces utter isolation. Still, he stubbornly buries his head in the sand, raging against the dying of the light.
The public could not have spoken with greater unity – Trudeau must go! Canada demands a new Conservative day.
Will our unwelcome Prime Minister finally heed the people’s call? Or will his swelling vanity plunge Canada into chaos? Trudeau rapidly approaches his moment of truth.
The winds of change are blowing through Canada. After nearly a decade in power, Justin Trudeau faces mounting calls from the public to resign and make way for new leadership. But if anyone thinks Trudeau will follow in his father Pierre’s footsteps and dramatically announce his resignation this February, they may be sorely disappointed.
According to sources close to the Prime Minister, Trudeau has firmly declared to his inner circle that quitting now would be untrue to himself. He is eager to fight the next election against newly minted Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and remains convinced that, with two years left before the next election, his party has sufficient time to turn around dismal polling numbers and clinch a historic fourth consecutive general election victory—a feat accomplished only by Sir John A. Macdonald and Wilfrid Laurier.
Yet neither of those Prime Ministers had to contend with a population as overwhelmingly discontent with their leader as Canadians currently are with Trudeau. New polling conducted by Ipsos and exclusively obtained by Global News reveals a staggering three-quarters of Canadians believe Trudeau should resign immediately. Even among staunch Liberal supporters, a full one-third think it’s time for new leadership.
“I’ve never seen a number that high for a prime minister, probably since Brian Mulroney back in 1991, 1992. And that’s what this really reminds me of,” remarked Ipsos CEO Darrell Bricker. “They created the party of Justin Trudeau and they’re going to live or die by that. They certainly have lived reasonably well over the space of the last eight years. But the other outcome is the one in which they’re defeated because they are the party of Justin Trudeau. And that’s where they are today.”
Trudeau’s cratering popularity has become an albatross around the Liberal Party’s neck. The Ipsos poll showed if an election occurred now, the Conservatives would take 40% of the vote, the Liberals 24%, and the NDP 21%. The Liberals risk slipping into third place nationally and have already dropped to second in Quebec behind the BC.
“If the NDP passes the Liberals in terms of second choice, I know what Jack Layton would do if he was the leader of the party,” Bricker remarked. “He certainly wouldn’t support the government, and they would go for it because they see themselves as the progressive replacement, the other option on the agenda on the ballot for Canadians who have a progressive point of view, but this NDP has not shown that level of moxie.”
While NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has criticized Trudeau’s liberals on several instances, his party shows little inclination to unilaterally abandon their supply and confidence agreement, propping up the Liberal minority government. In exchange, the Liberals have pledged progress on NDP priorities like national pharmacare, dental care, housing, and more.
However, cracks are already beginning to show in the Liberal-NDP coalition propping up Trudeau’s minority government. The Liberals recently conceded they will fail to fulfill a keystone promise to the NDP on national pharmacare legislation by year’s end.
This admission risks rupturing the confidence-and-supply deal underpinning the coalition. The agreement pledged a Canada Pharmacare Act would pass in 2023. With the Liberals already backpedaling, the NDP now faces a dilemma – accept another broken Liberal vow, or take meaningful action. Some NDP voices argue the party must hold Trudeau accountable or jeopardize long-term negotiating credibility.
The pharmacare tensions reveal a Liberal government hemorrhaging support on multiple fronts. Not only has the public broadly soured on Trudeau, but even his coalition partners in the NDP are growing frustrated with broken progressive promises. Trudeau risks being squeezed from both sides.
On one hand, Poilievre’s Conservatives stand ready to siphon off disgruntled centrist voters. On the other hand, an emboldened NDP could withdraw support and join the public clamor for Trudeau’s resignation. The once broad Liberal coalition nurtured by Trudeau after 2015 is now crumbling.
Without allies on either side of the political spectrum, Trudeau appears set to leave behind a party as diminished and isolated as his own tattered reputation. The pharmacare foot-dragging may prove a canary in the coal mine, signaling a looming catastrophe for Trudeau’s wounded Liberals.
The 16-point Conservative lead reflects frustrations with Trudeau’s failure to address urgent voter concerns like inflation, healthcare, and the housing crisis. When the survey asked which party would best tackle these issues, the Conservatives dominated on inflation, housing, the economy, and taxes. The NDP ranked highest on healthcare, poverty, and inequality. Only on climate change did the Green Party take top billing. The Liberals were not viewed as the best managers of any major voter worry.
Despite this, Trudeau remains optimistic his party can turn things around before the next election. Housing Minister Sean Fraser is meant to show the government is serious about housing affordability and supply. New attack ads paint Poilievre as dangerous, hoping to erode Conservative support. But Ipsos’ Bricker believes Trudeau’s faith rests on “a very brave take on the current situation.” The best Liberal hopes are likely a Trump reelection or major Conservative gaffes.
“It would be absolutely unique for somebody to pull it out of the fire in the situation that he’s in,” Bricker said. “I mean, even his own party supporters, a significant number of them don’t want him to run again. There’s nothing there. There’s no silver lining that anybody can really grab on that suggests that there’s any pathway through to improving these situations.”
Bricker’s prognosis is undoubtedly grim for the governing Liberals. But Trudeau clearly believes he can still snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Or maybe Trudeau simply cannot fathom relinquishing the office that has defined his entire adult life.
Quitting would mean admitting failure, conceding the Liberal vision was misguided, dashing the aspirations of Liberal loyalists who still see him as Canada’s best hope. But Trudeau’s ego won’t allow him to quit, no matter the cost to his party or country.
Yet Trudeau’s desire to remain leader seems profoundly at odds with public will. Most Liberals would rather see fresh management than go down with Trudeau’s sinking ship. The Ipsos polls make clear the party’s interests and Trudeau’s personal wishes are sharply diverging.
But perhaps Trudeau simply cannot stomach the thought of Poilievre as Prime Minister. Perhaps his competitive animosity toward Poilievre’s politics is overriding his reason. If so, Trudeau seems on track to fatally damage his party and with it the whole country just to spite his nemesis. His personal grudges should not supersede the Canadian cause.
In the end, Trudeau faces an existential leadership crisis. The public, and even many Liberal supporters, have lost faith in him. The responsible decision would be to surrender to the public’s verdict and stand down.
Trudeau has built his entire persona around never yielding to opposition, but the people have had their fill of him. His time is up. The magic is gone, the act has grown stale. Today, Trudeau is an anchor threatening to sink Canada altogether. The polls are clear – Canadians are fed up with years of Liberal government. Faith in Trudeau himself has collapsed.
Canada is now leaning Conservative and hungry for change. Pierre Poilievre waits in the wings to heed the people’s call. The numbers don’t lie – support for Trudeau has cratered. The writing is on the wall for his tired and aimless leadership.
Yet still Trudeau clings desperately to the Liberal throne, determined to take the whole country down with him if need be. He refuses to read the room or reckon with the public’s overwhelming desire for new management in Ottawa. This arrogant deafness to the popular will speaks volumes about a Prime Minister who has clearly overstayed his welcome.
The people are angry and have had enough of being ignored. Canada is a democracy, not Trudeau’s personal playground. The time has come for a changing of the guard, even if Trudeau lacks the wisdom to recognize as much.
Should Trudeau continue obstructing the public’s mandate, he risks sparking a full-blown constitutional crisis.
This February, Trudeau faces a moment of truth. Will he follow in his father’s footsteps and step down, or will he keep recklessly clinging to office and drag the country into chaos? The responsible choice is clear. Trudeau must abide by the people’s verdict and step aside gracefully. The interests of Canada must come before one man’s ego.
