Editors at National Review Online bid adieu to Canada’s departing prime minister.
The long, slow death of Justin Trudeau’s political career has been mesmerizing. In 2015, he led the Liberal Party of Canada to its first majority government since the 2000 general election. In 2019, he lost that majority and has bitterly clung to power ever since. At long last, his premiership will conclude, with the announcement on Monday of his resignation, pending the Liberals’ selection of a new leader.
In the 2019 election and in a snap election Trudeau called in 2021, the Conservative Party of Canada won more votes than the Liberals, but due to Canada’s unevenly populated legislative districts and geographic polarization, the Liberals won more seats. That alleged unfairness in Canada’s election system is something the Liberal Party had wanted to reform — until it became clear under Trudeau that the status quo benefited the Liberal Party.
Fear not, though: Under that same electoral system, current projections show the Conservatives under leader Pierre Poilievre will win one of the largest majorities in Canadian history at the next election, which will need to occur by October 20. The Liberals might be so diminished that they won’t even be the official opposition, with the Bloc Québécois as the second-largest party. It would be a well-deserved fate after Trudeau’s miserable tenure.
Under his watch, Canada has made tax-and-spend fiscal policy a national tradition on par with maple syrup. The government raised taxes on investment, furthering Canada’s lack of competitiveness relative to the U.S. The cost of living has risen as income and productivity have flatlined. Housing costs are among the highest in the world. …
… When Canadians threw the Conservatives out in favor of Trudeau in 2015, the U.S. reasserted its lead in income and hasn’t looked back. Today, every U.S. state has higher median earnings per person than the richest Canadian province. By GDP per capita, Ontario would be the fifth-poorest and Quebec would be the second-poorest U.S. state.
