Montreal, Canada – “Sunny ways, my friends. Sunny ways.”

That’s how Justin Trudeau, smiling broadly and waving to a crowd of supporters, began his 2015 victory speech, just hours after his Liberal Party secured a surprise majority in Canada’s election. General elections.

“This is what positive politics can do,” Trudeau said, promising to initiate “real change” after nearly 10 years of Conservative leadership under his predecessor, Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Now, nearly a decade after coming to power, Trudeau is stepping down as Liberal leader.

The decision effectively ends his term as Canada’s prime minister amid a wave of internal dissent, opposition pressure and weak poll numbers ahead of the impending vote later this year.

“As you all know, I’m a fighter, and I’m not someone who backs down from a fight, especially when the fight is as important as this one,” Trudeau said during a news conference in Ottawa on Monday morning.

“Canadians deserve real choice in the next election. It has become clear to me, in light of the internal battles, that I cannot be the person who holds the liberal standard in the next election.

It’s a dramatic downfall for Trudeau, who has been at the helm of the Liberal Party since 2013. He took office on a series of lofty promises, from tackling climate change to boosting social programs and helping Canada’s middle class.

But Monday’s announcement was not a surprise.

Trudeau faced months of pressure from within his party A growing chorus A number of liberal representatives had urged him to step down before the next elections. He also had to face widespread public anger over his handling of issues ranging from grocery costs to housing.

More recently, the threat by the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner, to impose 25 per cent tariffs on imports sparked a new wave of criticism — and prompted one of Trudeau’s top political allies, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, to release her. To resign.

“I think over time, people will remember him a little more fondly than he is now,” said Stuart Priest, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia.

“But there is a strange tendency for Mr. Trudeau, over time, to undermine the things he was best remembered for, in his desire to hold on to power.”

Rebuilding the Liberal Party

Trudeau’s Liberals won a majority in the 2015 Canadian election under the campaign slogan “Real Change Now.”

Trudeau, a former teacher and son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, has promised to unite the country and end years of divisive politics under Harper, who has been in power since 2006.

“We overcome fear with hope. We overcome cynicism with hard work. We overcome negative, divisive politics with a positive vision that brings Canadians together,” Trudeau said. His victory speech.

The centrist Liberals were trailing the Conservatives and the left-leaning New Democratic Party in the run-up to the 2015 election. The party had finished third in the previous election four years earlier.

“It seemed that the future of the party was in doubt, and [Trudeau] “She brought him back to life, which is a huge accomplishment in itself,” Burst said.

However, the professor noted that amid recent political turmoil and growing public frustrations, the Liberals are once again “close to the NDP.”

Recent polls show The two parties have about 20% support ahead of the next elections, which must take place before late October. Both of them lag far behind the conservatives. from hour About 40 percent of popular support.

“The Liberals have lost the support of a large portion of young Canadians, where they had until now enjoyed a healthy margin of support,” Perst said.

“Younger voters seem to feel increasingly alienated by the political system in general, by the economic system in general, and are willing to look for more radical options or those who promise more fundamental change.”

Promises and policies

However, when Trudeau first took office, he was enjoying good approval ratings, especially among younger Canadians, when he began implementing his campaign promises.

In those early days, Trudeau won widespread praise for establishing Canada’s first gender-balanced government, split evenly between male and female lawmakers, in one of his first acts as prime minister.

His first budget refunded the public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada and provided a tax benefit for children. Trudeau too pledge To help the Canadian middle class and address the climate crisis.

But over time as prime minister, Trudeau’s popularity declined. His Liberal Party won re-election in 2019 and 2021But both times as minority governments.

His time in power has been characterized by a mixed record of successes and failures, said Lisa Young, a political science professor at the University of Calgary. She pointed to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its successor, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), as an example.

“In some ways, it was the best moment of the Trudeau government during the first term [Donald] The Trump administration when it was able to use a very complex strategy to be able to do that Saving NAFTA“, she told Al Jazeera.

“They were able to renegotiate, they were able to maintain most of the access to Canadian markets, and they were able to manage what could have been a very difficult set of economic circumstances for the country.”

Recently, the Trudeau government also launched a series of progressive social policies, including affordable child care and a dental care program. The latter was a major demand of the NDP, which – until September 2024 – it was to support Liberal minority government.

“In an era when people despair at the possibility of creating new national social programs, they have managed to find a way forward,” Young said, adding that these measures may be short-lived.

I think all of these are potentially vulnerable to a change of government. I don’t know when they will survive Conservatives take office.”

“Two steps forward, two steps back.”

But while he has followed through on some of his promises, Trudeau has also failed to deliver on others, including his pledge to do away with Canada’s “best-past-the-post” voting system in favor of proportional representation.

Over the years, human rights advocates have also criticized the Trudeau government for promising one thing but doing another.

For example, amid the US crackdown on immigrants in 2017, Trudeau Advertise on social media And that Canada would welcome “those fleeing persecution, terrorism and war… regardless of their faith.”

But after Canada saw a surge in irregular immigration, Trudeau’s government – under pressure from right-wing provincial leaders – responded by tightening immigration restrictions. US-Canadian border To make it difficult for asylum seekers and migrants to apply for protection.

The Trudeau government has also recently linked immigration to High housing costsAdvocates said that led to increased anti-immigrant sentiment.

Another example of Trudeau’s “mixed legacy” is his government’s record on climate change, Perst said.

While Trudeau signed the Paris Agreement to address greenhouse gas emissions, he has also supported several major oil and gas pipeline projects that pass through Canada, including the canceled pipeline. Keystone XL Pipeline To the United States.

Furthermore, while the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in 2018 that the federal government can appoint… Price of carbon emissionsPerst said exceptions made for certain fuels in eastern Canada “undermine” the plan.

“Now, a carbon tax appears to be approaching an unacceptable option as a policy option, so the country is two steps forward and now two steps back in any kind of climate battle,” he said.

Relations with indigenous people

Another controversial issue throughout Trudeau’s term has been his relationship with Indigenous people.

At the beginning of his term, in 2015, he called for “the renewal of relations between the nation.” He stressed That “there is no relationship more important to me – and to Canada – than the relationship with First Nations, Métis Nation, and Inuit.”

Indigenous people were “cautiously optimistic” about Trudeau at first, said Eva Jewell, an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and director of research at the Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous think tank.

She explained that many were hoping that he would fulfill his electoral promises.

This included a pledge to implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission He investigated decades of abuse Against indigenous children in so-called residential schools.

In 2015, Trudeau ordered a national investigation into the matter Missing and murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) across the country, it was later recognized Investigation result The crisis amounts to “genocide.”

But Jewell said he failed to implement the goals set by the Boarding Schools Committee.

“Secure it [MMIWG] The investigation gained him some confidence and hope that he would continue to fulfill his requirements [TRC’s] Calls to action. I think it ultimately ended up being one of the only things he followed through on.

“Much of what the Liberals have promised or said they are willing to do, [was] Really just a lot of window dressing.

Several clashes have erupted as a result of Trudeau’s energy policy and its impact on Indigenous communities. In 2018, for example, the Trudeau government purchased a plane Controversial oil pipeline project Despite strong opposition from local communities.

Then, in early 2020, nationwide protests and blockades broke out over another pipeline project that would cut off the Nile River. Unceded indigenous lands Of the Wet’suwet’en nation. Despite concerns about the country’s territorial and water rights, Trudeau ordered the blockade removed.

“He was very clear in terms of the Wet’suwet’en and the Shut Down Canada movement that he was just as colonialist as any other prime minister,” Jewell said.

Deep divisions

Ultimately, Trudeau’s time in office was marked by a global trend of increasing political polarization.

Canada also sailed Covid-19 pandemic and the associated economic downturn, Trudeau has become the target of growing public anger over lockdown measures, rising costs of living and other grievances.

The situation reached a boiling point in early 2022, when right-wing groups organized themselves Truck convoy They occupied the streets outside Parliament in Ottawa for several weeks to denounce the government.

“He’s really been a lightning rod for a lot of anger about a lot of things,” Young said, adding that the country is also facing a “major crisis of national unity” as Trudeau’s term comes to a close.

In parts of western Canada — where residents have historically felt excluded from centers of economic and political power in the country’s east — anti-Trudeau sentiment runs deep, Young explained.

In major oil-producing provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, for example, this hostility is widespread, particularly as a result of Trudeau’s attempts to control the matter. Action on climate changeincluding pressure to put a price on carbon emissions.

“The deep anger toward him is so deep that Trudeau is still a bad word and will be for another 20 years,” Young said.

“On the one hand, it was truly an example of a progressive and cosmopolitan Canada…but at the same time, it left the country deeply polarized with… counter reaction to [those] Progressive politics.”

Young added that the real question at the end of the Trudeau era is whether the country’s shift to the right, as polls indicate, will be permanent.

“Have we actually become a more conservative country over the past ten years, which is entirely possible?” he asked. Young asked. “Or will the pendulum swing back when people face a Conservative government intent on, potentially, really profound change in public policy?”