An Assessment of Justin Trudeau's Time as Leader

Justin Trudeau has left politics. With the swearing in of Mark Carney as PM and the election call Mr. Trudeau has started his post politics life. As I usually do I am going to provide an assessment of his time as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister.

I will acknowledge that I am biased. I thought he did a generally good job as PM and Liberal Party leader although he was certainly not perfect.

As party leader I have stated many times in this space that he deserves a great deal of credit for throwing the old party establishment in the dustbin and dragging the Liberal Party into the 21st century. I believe if he had not done that then the last decade would not have been a Liberal one.

However, he did seem to have serious issues with handling some of the personalities within his caucus. Jodi Raybould Wilson could have been dismissed as an aberration, the result of his ham fisted handling of a minister who may not have been a team player in the end. However, he was even more ham fisted with Christia Freeland, who demonstrated that she was very much of a team player through almost a decade in his cabinet. As well, his handling, or lack thereof, of the caucus revolt late last year was stunning. Another leader would have started dealing with that before it reached critical mass but it seemed he did nothing. Certainly he did not seem to try to employ the various tools available to party leaders to convince dissenters to mute their concerns.

As Prime Minister we can say that he did some good, bad and ugly things.

The Good

• The general approach to governing. His government tended to use evidence to make decisions instead of ideology and they were not afraid to make the tough choices even if it might cost them votes. We can only hope that succeeding governments live up to that standard.
• The Trudeau government was the most progressive government this country has had since Trudeau the Senior. The next government, regardless of who wins the next election, will not match that.
• The handling of the health and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a masterclass of crisis management during a once in a century global crisis. The economic decisions of his government are the reason why we have one of the strongest economies on the planet. As well, if you are someone who receives a COVID shot each year you can thank the Trudeau government for that. They made certain to secure enough doses of the vaccines to provide for all Canadians until around 2035.
• The environmental polices of the Trudeau government. Although the Carbon Levy receives most of the attention it was just a small part of an very comprehensive and robust plan to tackle environmental issues. The Carbon Levy may be going but the rest is staying.
• The anti-poverty measures of the government. From the Child Care Benefit to the Dental benefit and $10 per day child care plan his government made great strides in reducing poverty and helping Canadians with paying for essential services.
• The government's handling of Donald Trump.

The Bad

• He bought a pipeline. The reason why he had to do so is because the economic case for that pipeline was so weak the private sector establishments that began it backed out. It was a purely political decision and it could have resulted in Canada owning a a giant white elephant. The second Trump presidency might have made it more economically viable but that could not have been foreseen when they decided to buy it.
• The government's communications was terrible. The media in this country is extremely hostile to the Liberals. That hostility predates Justin Trudeau's leadership. Just ask, Mr. Dion and Ignatieff about that. The government never adapted its communications to that reality. Interestingly we finally began to see better communication towards the end of PMJT's tenure but it was too little and certainly too late.
• The change to the Capital Gains tax was silly. While I agreed with it in principle its announcement and planned implementation were so poorly done that it only caused them grief for almost no benefit for Canadians. 
• The Trudeau government was way too slow in reacting to the precipitous rise in housing prices after the Pandemic. They had a very good housing strategy before it but they failed to review whether it was still valid after the Pandemic.

The Ugly

• Breaking the promise to change how we vote. While this issue only really appeals to a very small subset of the electorate it was still ugly. The funny thing is it could have been prevented and we could have had a new voting system since 2019 if Mr. Trudeau would have stuck to his first instincts. You may recall that he wanted to strike a Parliamentary committee to address this issue, where its membership would be set by the number of seats each party had in the House. Of course, the Opposition howled because that would have given the Liberal the majority on the committee. They demanded the composition be by the popular vote of the 2015 election instead and he caved. The rest was predictable. With no party having a majority and no party willing to compromise on what electoral reform would look like for them the Committee wasted over two years in fruitless debate before the government pulled the plug. I still wonder is Mr. Trudeau's decision to cave was a rookie mistake or a calculated move to make it look like he was trying to keep a promise he never had any intention of keeping.

In general, Justin Trudeau did a very good job as PM and the Leader of the Liberal Party. I am certain that he would do some things quite differently if he were given some do overs. However, he can take pride in the fact that he left the country is as good a shape as when he became PM (and some can argue it is in better shape). As well, he left the Liberal Party in good shape. It will be up to his successors to see if they can leverage that for the future.