{"id":209605,"date":"2025-01-07T10:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T10:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/07\/justin-trudeaus-trying-to-save-his-party-is-he-hurting-canada\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T10:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T10:07:10","slug":"justin-trudeaus-trying-to-save-his-party-is-he-hurting-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/07\/justin-trudeaus-trying-to-save-his-party-is-he-hurting-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Trudeau\u2019s Trying to Save His Party. Is He Hurting Canada?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/07\/multimedia\/07canada-trudeau-analysis-01-wklj\/07canada-trudeau-analysis-01-wklj-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Justin Trudeau\u2019s Trying to Save His Party. Is He Hurting Canada?\" title=\"Justin Trudeau\u2019s Trying to Save His Party. Is He Hurting Canada?\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Justin Trudeau\u2019s announcement on Monday that he would resign was the last card that Canada\u2019s deeply unpopular prime minister, who had set his party on course to lose a national election, had left to play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The political levers he has pulled will give Mr. Trudeau\u2019s Liberal Party a chance to reinvent itself without him. But they will also leave Canada weakened as it braces for President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has threatened the country with tariffs that could cripple its economy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It appears to be a gamble that Mr. Trudeau is willing to take.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To allow his party\u2019s thousands of members to choose his successor, a lengthy process that will involve campaigning, Mr. Trudeau suspended Parliament until March 24. A general election is expected to follow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Holding a party leadership election before a general one is par for the course in countries with parliamentary systems like Canada\u2019s. Suspending Parliament to hold such an election is far less common. By doing so, Mr. Trudeau wards off the likely collapse of his minority government and gives the Liberals time to choose a leader unburdened by his dismal poll numbers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But it means that in two weeks, when Mr. Trump returns to the Oval Office, Mr. Trudeau will be leading Canada as a lame duck, weakening the country\u2019s hand in crucial negotiations with its closest ally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe prime minister stepping down means it will be hard for him to carry any meaningful mandate in negotiating with the U.S., and it doesn\u2019t signal any unity within Canada,\u201d said Xavier Delgado, a senior program associate at the Canada Institute of the Wilson Center, a Washington-based foreign policy research institute. \u201cIt\u2019s not a great time for Canada to be in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trudeau\u2019s opponents wanted a quick general election, which would let a new government with a fresh mandate \u2014 presumably led by Pierre Poilievre, whose Conservative Party has a commanding lead in polls \u2014 spearhead Canada\u2019s response to Mr. Trump as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump has threatened to slap punishing tariffs on Canadian goods that could send the country\u2019s economy into a recession and upend the North American trade pact established over the past few decades. (It would also be injurious to the U.S. economy; the two nations are each other\u2019s biggest trading partners.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The president-elect has persistently suggested that Canada should become part of the United States, calling it the \u201c51st state.\u201d He repeated his menacing joke on social media on Monday, after Mr. Trudeau\u2019s resignation announcement: \u201cMany people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State,\u201d Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social, promising no tariffs if Canada \u201cmerged with the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-3cd019fa\"><span>Party first<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Mr. Trudeau became the Liberals\u2019 leader, the party was in shambles. In the 2011 national elections, it finished third for the first time in its history. Mr. Trudeau, who assumed its leadership in 2013, is widely credited with raising it from the dead and leading it back into government two years later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe Liberal Party, such as it is, has been the Justin Trudeau party for more than a decade,\u201d said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, a research center. That has made it hard for the party to let go of him and for Mr. Trudeau to relinquish control, Ms. Kurl said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But finally, on Monday morning, after weeks of pressure from within the party to resign, Mr. Trudeau acknowledged that his time was up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI truly feel that removing the contention around my own continued leadership is an opportunity to bring the temperature down,\u201d he told reporters gathered in the freezing cold outside his Ottawa residence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s become obvious to me with the internal battles that I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election,\u201d he added. Until the Liberals choose their new leader, Mr. Trudeau said, he will stay on in that role and as prime minister.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The party\u2019s internal election process, which will last several weeks, will allow <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/06\/world\/canada\/justin-trudeau-replacement.html\" title=\"\">a handful of hopefuls<\/a> to reintroduce themselves to the public, no longer as Trudeau associates but as individuals vying for the party\u2019s and the country\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI think the Liberals are now clinging to the idea that there is no longer a path forward for him, but there is absolutely a path forward for someone else,\u201d Ms. Kurl said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, with the Conservatives leading the Liberals by 25 percentage points in recent surveys, the path that Mr. Trudeau bequeaths his successor is likely to be treacherous.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSixty or 90 days are not a long time to reinvent a party after 10 years in power,\u201d Ms. Kurl said. \u201cHow many more rabbits are in the hat? How many more pivots are there?\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"css-15h6bi9 e1gnsphs0\" id=\"link-70a2a2a9\"><span>Brief relief<\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For many Canadians, Mr. Trudeau\u2019s departure was a necessary condition if they were going to consider voting for the Liberals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">David Coletto, who leads Abacus Data, a polling company, said early research on Monday suggested that Canadians felt relief at the news of Mr. Trudeau\u2019s resignation, and that his departure had the potential to shift attention away from his unpopularity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cPeople are saying they feel relieved and optimistic about the prime minister stepping down,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a signal to me that there\u2019s potentially an opportunity for the Liberals to rebuild the relationship with Canadians.\u201d But it is far from certain that this will happen, he cautioned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While Mr. Trudeau\u2019s departure can only improve the Liberals\u2019 situation, analysts said, the country is unlikely to benefit from being practically leaderless as Mr. Trump takes office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the new president begins to push through his agenda \u2014 which has Canada in its cross hairs, with Mr. Trump having complained about border security, Canadian military spending and a trade imbalance \u2014 Canada will be trying to sort out who\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cCanada would be strongest in dealing with the United States if it could unify around the message for its leader \u2014 and that would apply to any country,\u201d said Mr. Delgado of the Wilson Center\u2019s Canada Institute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Others were less concerned, suggesting that Canada\u2019s dealings with the Trump administration would be a long game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Mr. Trudeau who is now vice president at Eurasia Group, a consulting firm, said no leader would be able to cut a deal with Mr. Trump on Day 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNothing irreparably bad will happen in the next three months,\u201d Mr. Butts said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have Trump for four years; the next three months are not going to be the whole story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/07\/world\/canada\/justin-trudeau-liberal-party-canada.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Trudeau\u2019s announcement on Monday that he would resign was the last card that Canada\u2019s deeply unpopular prime minister, who had set his party on course to lose a national election, had left to play. The political levers he has pulled will give Mr. Trudeau\u2019s Liberal Party a chance to reinvent itself without him. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/07\/multimedia\/07canada-trudeau-analysis-01-wklj\/07canada-trudeau-analysis-01-wklj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[60733,740,165075,165435,163575,67,165436,32718,164053,8510,165074,1697,57271,127669,1119,17035,41228,52,1021,128437],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209607,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209605\/revisions\/209607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}