The Trudeau Legacy

by Gary Porter

Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau announced on January 6, 2025 that he would resign effective when the Liberal party had selected a new leader. The Governor General granted his request to prorogue Parliament until March 24. All bills before Parliament, for example the bill to increase capital gains tax inclusion rates, have died on the order paper.

Now there will be a rapid leadership contest to settle on the next ruling class politico who will lead the principal party of the Canadian bourgeoisie. Red Review will have more to say on that subject. But here we discuss the legacy of Trudeau and his 10-year term as Prime Minister.

In 2015 as Trudeau and his new cabinet, over half female, came striding up the driveway to the Governor General’s mansion, Rideau Hall, to be sworn in, there was a feeling of relief in Canada- the end of the reign of the autocratic and deeply racist Stephen Harper. Trudeau spoke of a future in Canada of “sunny ways”. We will look at a few examples on key issues, to assess how Trudeau performed?

Proportional Representation: Trudeau promised Proportional Representation in the 2015 election. This system is used in many countries and allows minority parties to be proportionally represented in the House of Commons. It is a more democratic structure. However, after the election, Trudeau simply announced that he had no intention of making this change.

Safe drinking water on indigenous reserves: Trudeau promised to resolve the widespread and unforgiveable problem of lack of safe drinking water on indigenous reserves. While there has been progress in recent years, according to federal records, there are still 32 long term drinking water advisories on 30 reserves including some that have been in place for more than 25 years. There is also a deficit in funding for the maintenance and operation of drinking water systems on reserves, which the Parliamentary Budget Officer identified as amounting to $138 million per year.

Instead, the Liberal government has been promoting public-private partnerships (P3s) as a solution. History has shown that P3s not only cost more, but they also lead to the privatization of water and a loss of community control and jobs. Private enterprise solutions can only offer safe water if it is profitable and well-regulated with regular daily inspections. P3s are not the answer to the drinking water crisis in First Nations.

In July 2010, the United Nations declared water and sanitation to be human rights, acknowledging they are essential to the realization of all other rights. Yet at any given time there are drinking water advisories in dozens of First Nations communities across Canada. The lack of clean, safe drinking water in First Nations is one of the greatest violations of the UN-recognized human rights to water and sanitation.

Right to Strike: The Trudeau government made a habit of violating the constitutional right of Canadian workers to strike. Montreal port workers were ordered back to work without a contract in 2017. BC and Montreal Port workers were ordered back to work under mandatory arbitration in 2024. Rail workers were ordered back to work in 2024, and recently Postal Workers had their strike broken. The only leverage workers have for fair wages and working conditions is their right to withdraw their labour. But Trudeau made a mockery of this right and, it must be said, the labour movement leadership, to date at least, has let him get away with it.

Investment incentives: Trudeau and his now former deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, managed to renegotiate a deal under the duress of high steel and aluminum tariffs. When the Biden administration shifted the trade narrative again — through major investments in domestic renewable energy, silicon chip and electric vehicle manufacturing — the Trudeau government was compelled to respond in turn with billions in investment incentives (in EV batteries, for example). Both deals were entirely in support of Canadian billionaires, not working people.

Climate Change: The Trudeau government, as on many files, talked like a progressive but offered the government’s continued support for oil and gas extraction at home and environmentally and socially devastating mineral extraction projects abroad. New pipelines were completed (and outright purchased), allowing more of Canada’s highly polluting, largely foreign-owned bitumen resources to reach tidewater.

Carbon pricing and energy investment tax credits (corporate subsidies) for carbon capture and storage have done little to lower emissions. In reality, they provided an easy target for right-wing agitation about “freedom” from “woke” environmentalism. Political opposition to the “carbon tax” has intensified over time to the point that it now threatens the Liberal Party’s future and the pursuit of the larger climate agenda.

Housing: Similarly, on the housing file, the government’s initiatives have helped ameliorate conditions very modestly, but they do not fundamentally challenge the real problem, the financialization of housing — housing as an investment vehicle for the wealthy versus a place to live — the main source of skyrocketing rents and house prices. Under capitalism, housing is another commodity built to earn a profit, not to meet a basic need of human beings.

Emergency Act: In January of 2022, libertarian right wingers from the Western Maverick Party, among whom leader, Tamara Lich and the Peoples Party of Canada led by former Tory Maxime Bernier helped to organize the so-called Truckers’ Convoy. This protest headed for Ottawa led not by Truckers but by extreme right politicians and funded by a variety of well healed contributors, many from the American right wing. Although the initial focus was frustration with Covid restrictions, the leaders quickly advocated the overthrow of the Trudeau government. This was never seriously posed.

Initially, police refused to enforce the law because they supported the aims of the right-wing protest. An example of effective tactics to block the protest occurred at Billings Bridge in Ottawa where a mass demonstration of ordinary citizens blocked and turned back a group of protest vehicles from entering downtown Ottawa. Had the labour movement and the NDP acted, the right-wing attack could likely have been peacefully concluded. But Trudeau reacted by declaring the Emergency Act which sets aside civil rights and effectively establishes authoritarian government. This Act, subsequently condemned by an investigative commission as excessive and unnecessary, clearly indicated Trudeau’s authoritarian impulse when he felt capitalist “law and order” was threatened.

International Affairs: But what has Trudeau’s role been in international affairs? He and Chrystia Freeland led the founding of the Lima Group to overthrow the democratically elected Maduro government in Venezuela. Propping up, They set out to impose a pretender named Juan Guaido on Venezuela. The project failed on the shoals of popular support for Maduro and the obvious fact that Guaido was clearly the candidate for foreign imperialism led by the US.

Earlier this month (January 2025), Malian senior judge Boubacar Moussa Diarra issued an order for the seizure of three tons of gold from Barrick, according to court documents quoted by multiple outlets. The Sahel state’s economy ministry reportedly said Barrick owes the government $5.5 billion and has refused to pay. Barrick Gold, a top Canadian mining company and second largest gold miner in the world, systematically breaks agreements to pay royalties and taxes to poor countries in the Global south, exploits workers brutally in these countries and banks profits off shore in tax havens.

Yet the Canadian government does nothing to force these Canadian companies to end their criminality. On the contrary these corporations are treated like royalty in Canada with their names on plaques in Toronto Hospital lobbies as donors. This is the ugly face of modern imperialism and it is just fine with Canada’s Liberals (and Tories). Canadian capitalists hold 1.25 trillion dollars in non-US foreign investments chiefly in the global south.

They call it “development”, but there is no development. This is government supported pillaging of resources of underdeveloped countries. After the resources are gone, these imperialists leave nothing behind, no schools, hospitals, roads, electric or communications infrastructure, just empty mines, unemployment and injured workers. Despite Trudeau’s pseudo progressive talk, this imperialist system remains unchanged.

Trudeau has unflinchingly supported the brutal genocide of the Zionist entity in Israel against the Palestinian people including the deliberate and systematic murder of women, children, doctors, journalists, teachers and UN aid workers. The Israeli Defence force, the Israeli settlers and much of the Zionist population celebrate the murder, torture and suffering of the Palestinians. Trudeau has supported it all, shipped arms to the Zionists and provided aid and comfort to the billionaire Zionist jackals in Canada such as Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz.

Canada under Trudeau has participated in the Ukraine conflict since 2015 when he was elected. Canadian special forces worked with the British SAS and the US special forces to train outright Nazi troops after the illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government in 2014. These three countries built up an army of 250,000 NATO trained and fully armed troops to carry out a brutal repression of Russian speakers in East Ukraine. They killed 14,000 people before Russia finally intervened in 2022.

In spite of Trudeau’s oft referenced “boyish charm”, he proved to be a ruthless and consistent representative of the Canadian ruling class which, as it happens, shares a wide range of common interests with US imperialism.