From "Because it's 2015" to "I'm a Zionist". Closing the Book on Trudeau
As a Prime Minister Trudeau, at his best, was witty and concise. Within the space of a soundbite he was able to capture a moment the way he wanted the world to see it; presenting it to the camera with a winning mixture of charm and gravitas that was able to go, at least by the standards of Canadian politics, viral.
Two of these moments bookend his career. The first came when he was newly elected on a sunny November day in Ottawa where he responded to a question on why he had a gender balanced cabinet with the quip of "Because it's 2015".1 It was a break from the dark and angry days of his predecessor, Stephen Harper, and cemented his image as a bold, progressive and inclusive leader, strong in his principles and set on building a brighter and more hopeful future. He successfully set the tone for what was an unusually long honeymoon with the Canadian public.
The second came indoors, in front of an oddly subdued backdrop of children's paintings in a childcare center in St. Thomas, Ontario in March 2025, where he responded to a question on his reaction to the psychodrama caused by President Trump as "Thursday". He portrayed it as just another day of global turbulence buffeting Canada by forces outside of his control; facing them to the best of his ability for nearly a decade in the service of Canada and Canadians. I imagine that he hopes this will set the tone for how his legacy as Prime Minister will be seen.
These are the front and back covers of Trudeau's legacy as PM, the front a bright sunny yellow, the back grading into some sober yet resilient colour, forest green perhaps. It will look very attractive on the bookshelf, but the adage of don't judge a book by it's cover applies.
Within just a few pages of this book is the ugly blemish of his attempts to manipulate his promise of electoral reform, and failing that, outright breaking it. I've written about that extensively2. The honeymoon was no more and what followed was two elections in which he eked by with minorities, a humbling by the standards of the Liberal Party of Canada which has imagined itself often to be the "natural governing party of Canada".
What then of the end? Just a few days after his "Thursday" quip, Trudeau stood up and proudly proclaimed. "I am a Zionist" after claiming the term merely meant "...believing in the right of Jewish people... to determine their own future"3. Unlike "Thursday" this was not a commentary on his tenure,, but a proclamation of a core belief that he wants sustained permanently.
If there is one word that I would use to describe Justin Trudeau, it would not be as charming, or dedicated as he might want. It would not even be arrogant. It would be stubborn. He decided at some point in the past that proportional representation is a bad idea and no amount of expert or citizen ceremony could shift him off that position. Somewhere along the line he decided that Zionism merely meant Jewish self-determination, and no amount of death and destruction visited upon Palestinians by Zionists implementing their ideology will change his mind.
It is said that what we remember of people is how they made us feel. If that is the case then I can say with almost complete certainty that what I will remember of Trudeau is the pain of his betrayal of electoral reform and disgust and horror at his sanitizing an ethnonational ideology that has displaced and murdered millions of people.
The only way the book of Justin Trudeau's legacy as Prime Minister can be viewed with any positivity is if, not only is it not opened, but it is placed on the shelf so only the front can be seen. As the back is splattered with the blood and gore of hundreds and thousands of Palestinians; Victims of his professed Zionism.