“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

“It was the night before Christmas . . . ,” Well not quite. It was a warm summer day in Cranbrook more than a decade before Christmas 2024 when young Justin Trudeau came to town with his then-fiancé Sophie Gregoire before she became Canada’s First Lady and was later demoted.

The scene was before a large crowd in downtown Rotary Park and Trudeau, with his dark tousled hair and blue jeans ripped below his knee, was dazzling the crowd. Standing on the stage under the curved roof of the gazebo, the then-boyish future PM wowed the crowd like a gorgeous fashion model giving the spectators what they wanted, namely his scintillating charisma to rub off on them.

Some Sam Steele Sweethearts, who had joined him on the stage, looked giddy and overwhelmed in those halcyon days when Sam Steele Days was still Cranbrook’s biggest annual festival and the “Spirit of the Rockies” was just a hairbrained idea waiting to be born. But I digress.

If you could have seen Trudeau back then, I think you would have been impressed too. He was more than just a pretty face. He was smart, articulate, and verbally fast on the draw, all talents of a budding politician. And having a father who was Prime Minister for 15 years didn’t hurt either. Still, it was a big surprise when Justin won the 2015 election, a year when the Liberals started behind in the polls to – believe it or not – the NDP.

And now the only reason he remains Prime Minister is through a devil’s agreement he signed with the ever-helpful NDP to support the Liberals on any confidence vote in the House.

But weeks ago, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh tore up the agreement leaving Trudeau twisting in the wind.  However, Singh and his party didn’t act on voiding the agreement until former Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s bombshell announcement Monday that she had enough of Trudeau and was resigning.

That set off a political firestorm which the NDP finally joined along with more than a dozen Liberal MPs and Trudeau’s previously “sunny ways” were over. But he still holds on forlornly waiting for a miracle.

It’s hard to fathom why Justin doesn’t get it. Faced with the same situation years ago, his father Pierre went for “a walk in the snow” and recognized the obvious – it was over.  Done. Time to move on. It happens to all of us sooner or later.  Or is Justin holding on out of sheer perversity?

Another possibility is a little darker. Maybe Trudeau just doesn’t get along well with women? Especially smart, strong, political women. Think about it. The first cabinet members he fired were Attorney General Judy Wilson-Raybould and Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, both women, and both fitting the image of the women already mentioned. A few years later. he separated from his wife amidst rampant speculation she didn’t want him to run again in another election. And this time around, it’s another powerful woman – Freeland – thought by many to be his successor.

Armchair philosophizing? Maybe. But if you can provide a political theory that’s better, I’d like to hear it. Watching a once talented leader virtually disintegrate in front of us is not a pleasant phenomenon.

There’s got to be a reason.

Lead image: Justin Trudeau with then City of Cranbrook Mayor Wayne Stetski and 2013 Princess of Sam Steele Alicia Leasak and Sweetheart of Sam Steele Makenzie Yates. Gerry Warner photo

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, who has never before seen Canadian politics this unhinged.

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