TORONTO — When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit the road last month on what was billed as a “listening” tour, he traveled to restaurants, roadside rest stations and town halls across the country to meet his fellow Canadians. He received a mixed response: While some people warmly welcomed him, others criticized Trudeau’s handling of the economy, relations with the nation’s indigenous peoples and the Alberta tar sands, a rich source of oil whose development is carbon-intensive.
A poll conducted in January for a Toronto newspaper showed Trudeau’s approval ratings had dropped to their lowest levels — 48 percent — since he became prime minister. It was a stark contrast to October 2015, when the young politician came to power promising sweeping change and was greeted by most Canadians like a fresh island breeze.
No doubt about it, Trudeau’s honeymoon with the public is over. Less than 18 months after leading his Liberal Party to a resounding victory in the federal election, Trudeau and his cabinet face investigations over alleged cash for access, accusations of breaking a campaign promise to reform the country’s elections system and criticism over other issues ranging from handling the national budget deficit, military spending and even mail delivery.
When Trudeau canceled plans to attend January’s World Economic Forum in Switzerland in order to embark on the cross-country tour, his critics regarded the move as damage control. Days earlier, Canadians learned that Trudeau and his family had vacationed on a private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan, an Ismaili Muslim spiritual leader whose foundation receives millions of Canadian dollars in funding from Ottawa, and had arrived there on the multi-millionaire’s private helicopter. The trip raised a cry about a potential breach of ethics laws, which in Canada prohibit ministers from accepting gifts, including free travel.
Robert Bothwell, a history professor at the University of Toronto, says he believes the trip was a case of “bad optics” rather than an ethical breach. Prince Karim Aga Khan has long been a friend of the Trudeau family, Bothwell says, adding that the multi-millionaire has endowed the country with lots of money and has enjoyed warm relations with successive governments, both Conservative and Liberal.
The trip was a big misstep for Trudeau, Bothwell says.
“As a leader you want to establish a link to your electorate. Voters want to feel that they’re sharing some of the same experiences with you. You don’t go out of your way to show you’re receiving benefits that your fellow citizens wouldn’t have a hope of receiving.”
The Aga Khan case made news partly because it had just come on the heels of another potential ethical breach. In November, a newspaper revealed that the prime minister and senior cabinet ministers had raised millions of dollars through private fundraisers, many of which had been attended by wealthy business people in private homes. Tickets had cost as much as $1,500.
Critics saw it as a violation of an ethics document the Trudeau government had released just weeks after coming to power. Trudeau said some attendees had lobbied him at the fundraisers, but he insisted that had no bearing on his policy decisions.
“I don’t know if anything of importance was discussed or decided at those fundraisers but I do know that I wasn’t there to put forward my concerns and neither were you,” said Jeremy Kronick, a senior policy analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute, a Toronto-based think tank. “When you decide who gets access to political leaders based on how much money they have, it’s not right for democracy.”
For the Aga Khan case, the country’s Ethics Commissioner, an independent officer of parliament, is investigating a possible breach of the Conflict of Interest Act. Trudeau recently announced his government would introduce legislation banning elite fundraisers for cabinet ministers.
The various ethical breach allegations are part of wider criticisms Trudeau faces. During his campaign in 2015, Trudeau promised to scrap the first-past-the-post voting system, a winner-take-all system that many Canadians have criticized. His government dedicated millions of dollars to exploring the possibility of proportional representation or a ranked ballot system.
But last week, the government revealed it was no longer pursuing a change to Canada’s voting system because there was no “clear preference” for a new one. The response was swift and fierce.
“What Mr. Trudeau proved himself to be today was a liar, to be the most cynical variety of politician, saying whatever it takes to get elected then, once elected, seeking any excuse, however weak, however absent, to justify that lie to Canadians,” said NDP democratic reform critic Nathan Cullen.
Other challenges lay ahead for the prime minister. Trudeau has kept his campaign promise to launch an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. But he faces criticism over the pace of reforms for the country’s First Nations populations that include improving education and infrastructure.
South of the border, U.S. President Donald Trump has made clear his disdain for the North American Free Trade Agreement in its current form, and this could prove to be a thorny issue in talks between Canada and the U.S. So, too, could the countries’ respective policies on refugees and immigration.
“The issues that are likely to come up over the next couple of years are going to eclipse the ones Trudeau is dealing with now,” says Bothwell. “We’ll be heading into negotiations with a U.S. administration that is not interested in establishing common ground. It’s interested in being triumphant. If Trump uses the negotiating style he boasts about, he could end up bullying Canada.”
That could spell trouble for the Trudeau government. But some political pundits see a possible upside for Trudeau.
“If Canada comes out of negotiations with the U.S. in a good position on trade and other issues, it will be a boost for this government,” Kronick says. “Justin Trudeau could even end up being seen as beacon of light in the dark world of Donald Trump.”
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Justin Trudeau Faces the End of the Honeymoon originally appeared on usnews.com
