2023-11-25 16:20:51
SPITTING IMAGE – Since his ascension to the post of Prime Minister in Canada eight years ago, Justin Trudeau has been noted above all by the decline in his popularity and the numerous controversies which have marked his two mandates until today. This Young Global Leader, “Golden boy” of the Canadian political scene after the overwhelming victory of his party against the Conservatives in 2015, is more than ever rejected by Canadians. Conflicts of interest, interference in the corruption investigation targeting SNC Lavalin and several times targeted by investigations for ethics violations, Justin Trudeau is, moreover, the ardent promoter of the implementation of programs supported by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
“Son of” in maple syrup without the panache of Cambronne
Before entering politics and “following in the footsteps of his dear father”, Pierre Elliott, Justin Trudeau, born in 1971 in Ottawa (Ontario), obtained his bachelor’s degree in English literature then another bachelor’s degree in educational sciences. He taught French and drama then enrolled in 2002 at the Polytechnic School of Montreal to pursue engineering studies, which he quickly abandoned. Three years later, he enrolled in a master’s degree in environmental geography at McGill University in Montreal.
His political career began in 2007. Justin Trudeau, closely linked to the Liberals, aimed for a riding in Montreal, but the party leadership refused it. On the other hand, activists favor him for the Papineau riding in Quebec. He was elected deputy there in 2008.
His first mandates in the House of Commons were especially marked by his hostile positions taken against the government in place, particularly on environmental issues, with an initial controversy when he described the Minister of the Environment at the time, Peter Kent, from “shit”.
In 2012, freshly re-elected as head of the Papineau riding, Justin Trudeau announcement to run for leadership of the Liberal Party. The one who is accused by his opponents in Quebec as in the rest of Canadian territory of taking advantage of his “look” and his relationship with Pierre Elliott Trudeau says he is running with “its qualities and its faults”. He bets on his “knowledge of the country” and promises “to establish your first name and your vision”. He advocates a Canada “open to newcomers”equipped with a “strong and dynamic economy and an independent foreign policy”. Sectors which are precisely causing him vehement criticism and a loss of popularity today…
Return of gas for trapper populism and moon of gall with the taste of glyphosate
He was elected in 2013 following a landslide victory, collecting 80% of some 30,000 possible points. His entry into office coincides with a scandal linked to senators’ expenses. A few years later, Justin Trudeau himself was the target of an investigation for having accepted a vacation from a prince.
He was appointed Prime Minister in 2015 after his party’s victory in the federal elections, despite a loss of support among French speakers. The Liberal Party offered itself an absolute majority in the Canadian Parliament with 184 elected out of the 338 in the House.
The honeymoon lasts two years. A drop in unemployment, an increase in economic growth and a social policy favorable to Native Americans and immigrants, allow him to maintain a good popularity rating. Justin Trudeau still faces criticism. He is accused of having let go on environmental issues by making decisions favorable to the oil industries and by authorizing the use of glyphosate, the controversial weedkiller marketed by the American company Monsanto.
Its foreign policy is also singled out with the negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), considered unfavorable for Canada, the failure of its talks with China on a free trade agreement and its American tropism, particularly concerning relations with Russia, Iran and North Korea.
His first term was also marred by a scandal, the first in a long series as Prime Minister. He was targeted in 2017 by an investigation by the Ethics Commissioner for having accepted a vacation offered by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, prince and spiritual leader of the Nizârite Ismailis, a branch of Shiite Islam. Gifts or services paid for by private money are not authorized for elected officials.
From scandals to the abyss
At the end of his first mandate, Justin Trudeau’s record appears very mixed. Opponents like former advisors remind him of his failure to “bring Canada back to the forefront of the international scene”. Worse, Ottawa’s relations with several powers, including allies, such as the United States, Russia, China, India and even France, are tense. The Liberal Party won the federal elections again in 2019, without retaining the majority obtained in 2015. Justin Trudeau tried to win it back through early elections organized at mid-term in 2021, but failed again, forming a minority government.
His second term began in 2019 with a new scandal, this time linked to interference in a corruption investigation targeting SNC-Lavalin. Justin Trudeau and his entourage are said to have put pressure on his Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould, so that the latter renounces legal proceedings targeting the Quebec construction company, involved in a corruption scandal in Libya. The group is accused of having paid no less than 48 million Canadian dollars in bribes to Libyan officials between 2001 and 2011 to win contracts, when the country was still led by Muammar Gaddafi.
The third ethics investigation concerning the Canadian Prime Minister comes barely a month later, once again for suspicions of conflicts of interest. The Canadian press reveals that Trudeau contributed to the awarding of a substantial government contract to a charity, We Charity, which paid members of his family a total of around 300,000 Canadian dollars.
The popularity of the Prime Minister, who was already crumbling with all these controversies, plunged during his third term, the fault of his health policy, the movement of the freedom convoy and the state of emergency decreed to deal with it. Added to these measures criticized by many federal states…an additional scandal! A Radio-Canada investigation revealed in January 2023 that his government paid 30 times more money to the strategy consulting firm McKinsey & Company than the Conservatives did when they were in power. The sums paid to McKinsey thus increased in nine years from 2.2 million dollars to… 66 million.
Just as in France, where relations between the cabinet and President Emmanuel Macron are the subject of a judicial investigation, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, equivalent to the Court of Auditors, announces the opening of an instruction on the contracts awarded by Justin Trudeau’s government.
Uncle Schwab’s transatlantic Pinocchio
Since the summer of 2023, the polls have been lowering Justin Trudeau and his party in terms of voting intentions in the event of an election. His opponents accuse him of a drop in purchasing power and a housing crisis which the Prime Minister had nevertheless promised to make “the number one priority”. In addition to inflation, Canadians must also pay a carbon tax, in force since 2019 and increasing each year by 15 Canadian dollars, which arouses the ire of the Conservative Party.
Members of this political party do not hesitate to denounce Trudeau’s affiliation with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and accuse him of “doing his vile dance with the class of Davos” by amassing wealth and rubbing shoulders with the jet set while “taxing the little guy for just driving to work”.
Former Young Global Leader, a WEF program which selects future “masters of the world”, those who will “shape politics, society and the world around them”, Justin Trudeau has maintained since his ascension to the post of Prime Minister a close relationship with the WEF. Not content with regularly participating in the Davos forum and finance the organizationhe has met many times, in his capacity as “new face of youth”, the Global Shapers, another Forum organization bringing together young people under 33 to “make their contribution to the construction of the world.
Another proximity to the WEF: the Canadian Prime Minister is one of the presidents of the defenders of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, a UN program supported by Davos and aiming to “achieve 17 sustainable development goals”.
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