Trudeau resigns as political crisis overwhelms Liberal Party

Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation as prime minister (Photo: flickr/ European Parliament)

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau stepped down this week amid a growing political crisis.

The Liberal Party leader was initially popular when he was elected in 2015. He introduced some reforms including bringing in a new child benefit and softened the racist, repressive state’s attitudes towards Indigenous people.

But he has presided over a social crisis of unaffordable housing, lack of access to healthcare and rising rates of unemployment.

Trudeau has faced increasing calls to resign from within his own Liberal Party. Deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland resigned last month after accusing Trudeau of not doing enough to face the “grave challenge” posed by Donald Trump’s election in the US.

Trump has threatened to hit Canada, as well as Mexico and China, with 25 percent tariffs. Freeland called for more austerity in response. She said Canada would need to keep “our fiscal powder dry today, so we have the reserves we may need for a coming tariff war”.

After Trudeau announced his resignation, Trump posted on social media that Canada should merge with the US, then “there would be no tariffs”. Trudeau has responded, saying there isn’t “a snowball’s chance in hell” the two would merge.

Michelle Robidoux, from the International Socialists in Canada told Socialist Worker, “This is a crisis that has been brewing for a number of years but has come to a head in the past two months. It is a product of the inability of the ruling party to deal with the multiple crises it faces. The issue of housing in particular has been at the forefront.”

Michelle added that the Trump election certainly contributed, “but it wasn’t the catalyst”. “When the Liberals were elected there was this great fanfare that it would be a kinder, gentler period for Canadians.

“But they have allowed privatisation to take hold. The only beneficiary of that has been the Conservative Party.

“Trudeau went surfing on the first national day for truth and reconciliation for Indigenous people that his own party had set up. That is an image that will be forever emblazoned in our minds. The superficial gloss of progressive policies hid a reality of impoverishing people over the past nine years.”

Trudeau has responded to the economic crisis by attacking migrants. Last October his government cut the target for the number of new permanent residents by 20 percent, also clamping down on numbers of overseas students and temporary workers.

The Migrant Rights Network rightly said, “Migrants are not responsible for Canada’s housing crisis, lack of jobs, or inadequate healthcare or other public services”. These are caused by “decades of federal and provincial policies that have underfunded and privatised public services”.

Although the Trudeau government called for a ceasefire in Gaza, it exported military hardware to Israel via the US. It attacked Palestine activists through police raids and smears of antisemitism.

But the right has also attacked the Trudeau government. In 2022, far right organisations and conspiracy theorists blockaded roads across Canada in opposition to vaccine mandates and other anti-Covid measures. Some of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” actions lasted several weeks.

And there have been several corruption scandals and negative media stories surrounding Trudeau personally. Polls now suggest that the Conservative Party would be a clear winner if there was an election today.

Michelle warned of the dangers of this. “The Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has aligned himself closely with far right elements. Some of the party’s MPs met with members of the far right German AfD. Tommy Robinson also met with elements of them when he visited Canada.”

But she said there are possibilities for resistance—if unions break from passively waiting to see what Trudeau will do. “Some 55,000 postal workers went on strike for nearly a month at the end of last year over pay and conditions. The Trudeau government ended the strike. It legislated them back into work.

“There was not a peep from trade union leaders. This has happened over and over. When there could have been a significant mobilisation the union leadership were practically silent.”

Anti-racists in Canada are also planning demonstrations the weekend before Trump’s inauguration. Michelle said, “We want to show solidarity with people in the US. But also to say we need to fight here for migrant rights.

“Our government gave billions to corporations and failed to address the affordability crisis and resorted to scapegoating the most vulnerable.”