Can Canada Escape from Trudeau?

Being a “consequential” leader should not be confused with being a loved and respected leader who improved the lives of citizens. The same can be said of “transformational” leaders—Stalin and Mao were both transformational leaders, like few others. Along with millions of Canadians, I am one of those who was directly “touched” by the reign of Justin Trudeau in Canada, and I do not believe that I will ever truly get over it. You do not make me a prisoner in my own country; ban me from all long-distance travel by boat, train, and plane; vilify my personal medical choices; attack my integrity as a mature, thinking professional; and, effectively negate my citizenship by replacing rights with privileges and thus elevating other citizens to a rank above me—and not have me remember you for the rest of my life. And just imagine: I am one of the lucky ones. Due to the lockdowns, numerous Canadians took their own lives; others died as a result of mRNA shots that were by no means “safe” (“safe” is absolute: it implies no exception—and all vaccines are unsafe for some or many)—those lives were not just diminished, they were extinguished. Resignation or not, Trudeau is still far from answering for his many crimes against Canadians—and most Canadians are still far from confronting their own complicity with Trudeau that made his manner of domination possible.

Monday, January 6, 2025 will endure as a landmark date in Canadian history: the “resignation” of Justin Trudeau from leadership of the Liberal Party, and the beginning of his exit as prime minister of Canada. It was not only long overdue—by several years—it came at the worst possible time, so much so that almost immediately Trudeau’s exit was overshadowed by ugly threats from Donald Trump (who also seemed to claim full credit for Trudeau’s demise because Canada, after all, is nothing more than a meaningless tabula rasa for him…or for both of them).

Again, I cannot help but react personally, as I was not a distant observer but rather a target. The “resignation” prompted no feelings of joy and celebration, to my surprise. Instead—and I am not being melodramatic here, you can ask those closest to me—it had me struggling to choke back the tears, with the volcanic upsurge of rage, resentment, and indignation that overtook me, like all the worst was compressed into one moment and suddenly released. My life, like the lives of countless Canadians, has been permanently “transformed” by this man, so beware you do not come around me saying what a “consequential” leader he was.

Perhaps what surprised me the most, is that the Canadian public turned against Trudeau. To be clear, his last two governments have been minority ones, and he lost the popular vote to the Conservatives in both 2019 and 2021, so there was not a strong base of support to begin with. Where some measure of popular support for Trudeau’s government seemed to materialize—and it may have been support more for the state, for order, predictability, and security than for Trudeau as such—was during 3/11, when nearly 90% of Canadians lined up to take the Covid-19 shots, and complied with lockdown orders and many accompanying restrictions that continued past the lockdowns. It was a dramatic degree of public conformity. Canadians’ “authoritarian character”—to borrow from Erich Fromm’s Escape from Freedom—was on full display, as they identified with the sadistic, tyrannical leader at the top, and then kicked downwards at everyone else, particularly those who did not obey and were marked as the dangerous, dirty, out of place Other (the unvaxxed). In a time of risk, of perceived danger, the one thing that Canadians feared even more than the virus whose proportions had been vastly overblown, was their own ability to decide for themselves and to make their own determination. The last thing they wanted, in other words, was freedom.

However, Fromm also pointed out that it is this same authoritarian mass of dependents who, should they sense any weakness in the leader, will turn on the same leader with an almost savage hostility and resentment, grounded in a deep sense of their own shame and humiliation for having complied, followed, and obeyed at the cost of their integrity as autonomous human beings.

The perceived weakness of Trudeau came during the Freedom Convoy of January–February, 2022—three years ago this month. As the Convoy kept growing, and ate up thousands of kilometres of highways from all directions that approached Ottawa—Trudeau went into hiding. Then he claimed to have come down with Covid (while vaccinated), as if seeking the sympathy of Covidians and reminding them of this “deadly” disease. Yet, at the same time, he reminded them of the futility of this so-called “vaccine” which neither stopped transmission nor infection. It was clearly not the “way out of the pandemic” that he had promised, and this was when Omicron had begun to spread across Canada. Yet this farce of “science” was being used to justify mass firings and loss of business, like what the truckers had experienced. Had it not been for the rupture caused by the Freedom Convoy, one suspects that “the pandemic” might never have ended in Canada.

The real decline for Trudeau began “post-pandemic,” and not just by some weird coincidence. Almost all the authoritarian incumbents around the world, those who avidly pushed for Chinese-style emergency measures, were toppled one by one, or resigned. Trudeau lasted longer than most, having a bigger ego and an extremely inflated and narcissistic sense of his own importance, and with Canadians putting up with more than most. Trudeau’s massive spending during the lockdowns, to keep Canadians at home from work (to prevent looting), created a false sense of momentary welfare, followed immediately after by raging inflation. Those with assets, saw their values skyrocket; and those living on wages, saw their real incomes crash. The state that Canadians so loved and depended upon, now began to claw back three times as much as it had ever given them—and let’s be clear: it was their own money that Trudeau had “gifted” them.

The Freedom Convoy was the most dramatic revolt of Canadians in well over a century. Though it was entirely non-violent, in the writing of Canadian history it ought to be ranked with the Louis Riel Rebellion in terms of its impact. It was also extraordinarily popular, at different times (opinion polls were like a roller coaster, documenting the instability in Canadians’ perceptions faced with this novel confrontation). Not once but twice, the Convoy was able to generate $12 million or more in small donations, almost overnight. The unique manner in which this protest movement was snuffed out by Trudeau laid bare his basic weakness: the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the freezing of protesters’ bank accounts, along with confiscation of their properties and in some cases their businesses. A run on the banks ensued: I personally witnessed scenes in my local TD branch that nobody there had ever seen before, as people rushed to withdraw their money and employees were clearly in panic mode.

Fast forward to the end of January of 2024, when Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable, unjustifiable, and unconstitutional. This too signalled weakness in the regime, as it was exposed for operating beyond the law. No longer could Trudeau claim that the law was on his side, and against the protesters.

An imploding economy. A badly divided society. Trust in the media and in institutions generally plummeting. A rogue leader operating outside of the law. Everything spelled weakness, and it was the sign that the authoritarian, compliant masses needed to turn on the leader.

It was clearly the “pandemic,” the Freedom Convoy, and the “post-pandemic” economy that ruined Trudeau’s hold. This was, after all, a prime minister with already four major ethics/corruption/conflict of interest scandals. Each time he was exposed, he lingered, and then stayed on. His carbon tax was as illogical as it was anti-scientific and punitive. But none of that was enough—unlike the pandemic and the Convoy. Now more Canadians realized they had been taken hostage by an ego-maniac intent on doing any damage necessary to create a showcase of his pet ideological projects.

For Trudeau, Canada was little more than furniture. It was his personal property—not a nation. The people could be moved around at will, like wooden pawns. Trudeau would do with Canada whatever he willed. Canada was the Trudeau family’s private real estate.

And Trudeau has persisted in being anti-democratic to the very end. He has essentially told Canada: “Hold on, you can’t have democracy: not while the Liberal Party takes the time it needs to choose a new leader”. He prorogued parliament—and the ornamental potted plant known as the Governor General approved, as is expected of one of Trudeau’s pet token appointees. That the Liberal Party now has no leader is nobody’s business but the party’s. It’s their fault for not being ready for an election. But taking Canada hostage, and putting leader before party, and party before country, is the Liberal modus operandi. “What an unmitigated mess, what a rolling disaster, what an unholy, odious, contemptible way to treat a country,” is how a writer for The National Post put it.

If Canada lost its right to be treated with respect and dignity, like a proper nation-state, Canadians lost even more. The most fundamental transformation that is a consequence of Trudeau’s tenure is that rights have been replaced by privileges. Even what rights Canadians thought they had, proved to be contingent and temporary at best—that is, not like actual rights. Canadians traded in a lot for dependency on fake handouts. They possibly still do not comprehend just much they have lost, and how little they had to begin with.

Trudeau leaves behind a country with four million people going to food banks. Over a million children go to school hungry. Poor and unemployed people in lines at soup kitchens ask for “medical assistance in dying”—Canada is euthanizing the poor and mentally ill in ways not seen since, to be very precise, Nazi Germany. Home ownership is beyond the reach of the majority, who are left to scrap among each other for expensive and limited rental spaces. And yes, “everything is broken,” from the passport system to airports, schools, hospital emergency rooms, and the immigration system. It will take Canada a very long time to rebuild, let alone heal, after Trudeau’s departure.

No wonder then that, even if a small but not insignificant minority, some Canadians want to see Canada expire altogether and be swallowed up by the US. Already by some estimates as many as four million Canadians live outside of Canada—and that figure grew by record-setting numbers of departures during Trudeau’s time. This was perhaps Trudeau’s greatest and most perverse success: he managed to sway even those who were dead set against him to hate Canada—the very idea of Canada—as much as he did. Canada would now be “post-national,” especially if Trump got his way. In fact it was Donald Trump’s obscenely imperialist bluster on the same day that Trudeau resigned, that quickly distracted from the importance of Trudeau’s resignation, and cut short Canadians’ reflection and recollection of all they had gone through under Trudeau.

Now, there was something looming even worse than Trudeau: a big Orange cloud of unbridled gluttony and feral stupidity rising from Canada’s southern border. The suffocating stench of hairspray and cosmetic cream on aged skin is unmistakable as it draws near.

What many Canadians might have missed, however, is the strange degree to which Trudeau and Trump are in fact identical. They are identical in two respects: 1) autocratic, and, 2) narcissistic. They are both post-liberal, post-democratic characters.

I am where I am today, largely because of this Trudeau person. In some ways I am thankful, but on most days I forget to give thanks for the manner in which I was compelled to seek my own liberation. I am also incredibly surprised: I had grown to believe that the harsh and uncompromisingly extremist views I had of most Canadians, growing up as an alienated and disaffected youth in Canada, were just that—the product of an immature child’s mind. To my shock, I saw most of my worst opinions of Canadians come to life from 2020 to the present, and then be validated. I had no idea that I was such a prescient child, and that it was the years that followed that had dulled my senses. It turns out that I grew up already “post-national”. Canada did not “disappoint” me during 3/11. Unlike Julie Ponesse, I was not one of those expressing disbelief, “Could this be Canada?” Oh yes it can be, and it is, and always has been the real Canada. What was different about the Trudeau period was that, for once, Canadians in the majority got a good taste of the real Canada: authoritarian, rigid, sanctimonious, and callous. I pray that Trudeau’s departure allows Canadians to arrive at a new and more humane sense of themselves and their society, assuming that the nation-state can survive what comes next.

---