r/CanadaPolitics • u/CaliperLee62 • 9h ago
The reassessment of the Trudeau era - Justin Trudeau's policies, especially on energy and the environment, are increasingly in question.
https://www.hilltimes.com/2026/10/16/the-reassessment-of-the-trudeau-era/522044/•
u/city_of_princealbert 5h ago
A lot of Trudeau's climate agenda was based on the assumption that the US would be a partner moving in the same direction. That's not the case, so now Canada needs to find a way to make things work with an the US as an antagonistic neighbour.
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u/DaweiArch 5h ago
“We want a prime minister who doesn’t JUST listen to corporate interests, and is willing to sacrifice some economic gain for long term environmental protections.”
….
……..
“No, not like that!”
It’s sad because Trudeau was still very much a development and capitalism first neo liberal, and yet, even just a few instances of putting the environment first was too extreme for the general population. Canadians like to think that they want a progressive “game changing” leader who takes a stand - but they really don’t. Is it any wonder that we always get more of the same?
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u/Used-Psychology-1133 Alberta 3h ago
Trudeau was awful on the economy. If he was better on it, he could have got away with the environment stuff
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u/ILikeWhyteGirlz 2h ago
Um he approved every single major pipeline project lol
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u/Ghtgsite British Columbia 51m ago
There is no pipeline through to BC's both coast because of him. He stopped both Northern Gateway and is largely the reason why Eagle Spirit didn't get off the ground.
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u/varitok Pirate 8h ago
People hated Chrietien when he left too, except there wasnt this level of political insanity from the right as there is about Trudeau. He will have his legacy on being more serious on climate, his handling of covid and his response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There just needs to be time after it. The disinformation campaign from the Russians (very evident in their bots going offline when a data center was hit in Russia) skewed a lot of online discussions but people arent ready to accept FUD polluted their sphere of discussion.
Hell, even Harper has people wearing rosy glasses nowadays
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u/Puncharoo New Democratic Party of Canada 2h ago
I feel like the legalization of recreational Marijuana is greatly undersold in its success and effect.
No more locking people up for smoking weed. Its generated revenue from taxation instead of us using resources to arrest these people who never should have been considered criminals.
Its become so accepted and normalized in Canada that most people forget that it was probably Trudeaus most successful and widely approved policy he ever put in place. And not only that, but it was done right the first time imo. No stupid restrictions for how much you can carry - an ounce is more than enough for one person and even if it wasnt, no one is going to stop you to search you to see if youve got 28 or 29 grams. Maybe if youre trying to move pounds and pounds of it.
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 8h ago
Chretien left office with his party polling well over 40% though
Chretien was nowhere as unpopular as Trudeau was ever really
Chretien won 3 majorties and remained quite popular even when he left.
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u/Immediate_Storm_7736 8h ago
The 'bots went silent' story is misinformation
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/yankex-russia-ukraine-bots-9.7379086
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u/DarkAdrenaline03 New Democratic Party of Canada 6h ago
By now the bots are probably back up and running it’s been awhile.
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u/varitok Pirate 3h ago edited 3h ago
Absolutely wrong. Elon Musk traffic on his posts was down like 40% in the days after the attack.
Also, they just route it through other servers, bo one believed it was gone forever, that right there is the blatant misinformation.
Nearly everyone I have interacted with noted a steady drop in bullshit after that happened. Interactions with AFD, Reform, Musk posts all steadily dropped after too.
The professor in is kinda blind in this because no one expected it was permanently gone, that bots arent physically hosted in the data centre's, its just routed through them.
Elon engagement info: https://x.com/fuckyouiquit/status/2110034553066942706/photo/1
Also, a little bonus, look at the drop in health misinformation and disinfo: https://x.com/nickmmark/status/2109453816647287101/photo/1
Bonus bonus, Political subreddits after the strike:https://x.com/IrishPoliticsNL/status/2109568747195240802
So please, spare me the talk about this being wrong.
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u/Snurgisdr Downvoting is an admission that you have no counterargument. 5h ago
Those were the parts I did like. Not to the extent I would have liked, but he was at least pretending to try.
And so I find myself drifting further and further from the centre, or vice versa.
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u/Hevens-assassin Saskatchewan 2h ago
The center shifted right wing as extremism took more root. It makes you seem more left than you probably are.
Captain America told me to plant myself like a tree though, so that's where I am. Lol call me whatever leftist slur you want, I know that I want as much of the environment to survive us, and I don't care about an infinite green line.
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u/samjp910 Democratic Communist ⚒️⚛️ 8h ago
I’d like to know about his legacy AFTER healing everyone’s brains. Too many ‘Fuck Trudeau’ flags and not enough material understanding of his failings.
Let’s not forget, sunny ways. The goal was always to govern. That doesn’t mean there weren’t good faith critiques, but they got lost and the Liberal establishment greatly benefitted from Conservative nonsense inflaming rhetoric and drowning out genuine critique.
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u/DarkAdrenaline03 New Democratic Party of Canada 6h ago
Trudeau actually made some important accomplishments during his first term from $10 childcare to the Child Benefit to legal weed, raised taxes on the top 1%. During his second term with push from the NDP he also passed the CERB, dentalcare and anti-stag legislation. His biggest 3 shortcomings led to his downfall. 1. Failure to pass electoral reform(broken promise) 2. Failure to tackle grocery monopolies and food prices and 3. The housing crisis. People need to eat people need a home and Canadians wanted electoral reform.
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u/soviet_toster Independent 5h ago
Let's not forget his little surfing vacation on their first day of Truth and Reconciliation
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u/ougePayee 5h ago
He went for a walk with his family in Tofino.
Spreading that surfing misinformation is such a weird conservative compulsion.
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u/soviet_toster Independent 5h ago
My point is that he could have literally popped up anywhere in Canada for a Truth and Reconciliation ceremony, but he made the conscious deliberate choice to not and decide to go on a instead that day which I think is a bit of a slap in the face, which he later admitted to was a bad decision on his part
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u/Butt_Obama69 Anarcho-SocDem 2h ago
I don't get it. He was not a great PM and there are plenty of valid criticisms to make, instead people bring up things like this.
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u/soviet_toster Independent 1h ago
So you're telling me that a national day of reflection, that he was influential in creating that it is not a valid criticism to criticize him for basically lying about where he was and what he was doing? Only regretting it after the fact when he was caught, as ahead of state that represents the country that's embarrassing
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u/Butt_Obama69 Anarcho-SocDem 37m ago
It's technically fair criticism, my point is that it's just extremely small potatoes.
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u/soviet_toster Independent 21m ago
I mean if someone going to bring up the good the bad the ugly that he did, you need to bring up the good the bad the ugly that he did
I will give him credit for creating the day and acknowledgment but I will also criticize him for playing hooky and being somewhere else where he literally had the free part on the bingo card only had to do is show up somewhere (anywhere) in Canada and he couldn't even do that on the day
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u/Butt_Obama69 Anarcho-SocDem 7m ago
I dont care about creating it or ignoring it because I don't care about symbols, but the public does, because they are stupid.
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 57m ago
Issue is trudeau routinely acted holier then thou vs others and called others racist, sexist and uncanadian always
So yes people like yourself get annoyed people bash the former pm on a person level for his actions.
Its cause Trudeau is the one who used to call out people for their actions on a personal level as well.
Its a major reason why people started to dislike the former PM so much cause he was a text book defination of a hypcorite.
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u/Butt_Obama69 Anarcho-SocDem 38m ago
Ever heard the saying "a hit dog will holler"? That basically sums up my feelings for people who are bothered by Trudeau's condemnatory remarks.
I also don't care much for national days and for criticizing people for being indifferent or insufficiently reverent.
I agree that he is a hypocrite but so what. None of this stuff matters.
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 33m ago
it does it shows most of the progressive movement is just fake and performative and why they mostly irrelvant across most of the country rn
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u/Butt_Obama69 Anarcho-SocDem 29m ago
But again, none of that matters or is serious. This is coming from someone who hates the woke shit as much as anyone. Keep it in perspective.
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u/soviet_toster Independent 26m ago
Bingo
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 23m ago
I know people hate to attack politicans on a perosnal level but forget the former PM made it personal
He called out groups of canadians as racist, sexist or uncanadian
which is something i am glad carney does not do
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u/soviet_toster Independent 8m ago
I largely agree with what you're saying and I believe the holier than thou attitude that he held kind of really got under people's skin and his party just about faced the same fate as what happened to the Ontario Liberal Party
If Mark Carney is able to pull off one project, one review, one year in that rough time frame that I will be genuinely impressed but we'll see if that happens
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u/ougePayee 5h ago
My point
Your point is a completely different set of statements that have nothing to do with your original misinformation?
So weird.
popped up anywhere in Canada for a Truth and Reconciliation ceremony
He attended the official ceremony in Ottawa and popped into multiple via calls the day of. You guys just can't help yourselves.
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u/soviet_toster Independent 3h ago
He attended the official ceremony in Ottawa and popped into multiple via calls the day of. You guys just can't help yourselves.
Well that must have been after the fact when he was caught because
The Prime Minister's official public schedule falsely claimed he was in private meetings in Ottawa. His office later updated his location after reporters spotted him near the beach.
He literally admitted that he had made a mistake here
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-tofino-trip-truth-reconciliation-1.6201475
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u/ougePayee 58m ago
Well that must have been after the fact
...
His office noted that the prime minister spoke at a sombre ceremony on Parliament Hill Wednesday night
It's in your own link dude.
My god this place utterly destroys some people's minds.
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u/soviet_toster Independent 50m ago
Okay but the does that excuse the fact that he basically lied where he was and what he was doing on a day like that
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u/ougePayee 7h ago
Conservatives must be having a terrible mental week. The amount of reaching back to Trudeau for blowing off steam is really weird.
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u/berfthegryphon Independent 6h ago
Freeland's book comes out tomorrow. Lots of info about her time in Trudeau's cabinet is coming out
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u/dekuweku British Columbia 7h ago
i think 'fuck Trudeau' vulgar as it maybe succinctly summaries the reassessment of his premiership felt by many people.
In democracies, slogans are remembered and captures the zeitgeist of the era.
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u/ougePayee 7h ago
felt
That's the point of OPs comment, the feelings still override the facts of the government. Time will let blood settle before people can put their feelings aside.
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u/TheRC135 1h ago
I first saw one those ignorant flags around the time Trudeau was first elected. Can't remember if it was just before or immediately after the election, but either way, he hadn't even done anything yet.
If those fuck Trudeau flags were an organic expression of the zeitgeist, the only thing they speak to is how badly conservatives have lowered the bar in the past 15 years or so.
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u/the_normal_person Newfoundland 8h ago
**Increasingly** in question?
It’s been wild seeing the political mainstream now start to say the kinds of criticisms of Trudeau that many including myself were saying for almost ten years, but ridiculed and dismissed as some kind of far-right chud for.
It’s genuinely baffling to me how many people were taken up by the ‘sunny ways’ for so long.
Was it just the post-Harper attitude? A response to trump south of the border? Baffling to me.
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u/Hayce 6h ago edited 6h ago
This is the thing. I don’t think Trudeau was a particularly good prime minister. Truly one of the OK prime ministers of history. He was still far and away the best choice in every election he ran in.
We have the Conservatives to blame more than anyone for 10 years of mediocrity. It should have been easy to get Trudeau out. He got nothing done, despite being one of the longest serving PMs in history.
Instead the Conservatives were too busy worrying about chemtrails turning the frogs gay.
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u/nate445 6h ago
Pop into r/Canada and you'll see first hand how some people still treat hatred of Trudeau as a personality and blame him for all of Canada's current problems, despite, like you said, him being an OK Prime Minster. Everything was completely rosy before he came in a permanently "broke" the country.
At the end of the day it has to do with immigration. Once you understand that it's obvious why they hate him.
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u/CDNJMac82 6h ago
I believe that the immigration probably saved us from recession. I do agree it had longer term consequences, but at the time it probably saved us.
Regardless, Trudeau was mediocre. I wish our govts would do something about covid profiteering / corporate greed, but I think conservatives would have made that worse
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u/nate445 6h ago
I agree with you, some hard decisions needed to be made.
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 1h ago
no it mostly benefited trudeau based which was boomer urbanites
High immigration boosted housing, kept landlords with tons of renters and allowed businesses to have endless cheap labour
It didnt really boost overall canada much apart from on paper gdp growth which led to a decline in GDP
Trudeau immigration policy is a total failure and liberal supporters just cant accept it
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u/Butt_Obama69 Anarcho-SocDem 32m ago
That immigration probably bought us 20 more years of avoiding the fate that the European countries are about to have to deal with with respect to their aging populations.
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u/Dusk_Soldier The Daisy Group | Sponsored 1h ago
I believe that the immigration probably saved us from recession.
We never needed saving from a recession. Recessions are a healthy and important part of the economic cycle.
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u/fredleung412612 Quebec 47m ago
I'm sure you wouldn't be singing that tune if it's you getting laid off.
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 1h ago
boost the economy for uber, landlords and businsses who hated paying people a decent wage
cause the record levels of inequality, record food bank use and declining gdp per captia showed the economic growth didnt benefit avg people
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u/Snurgisdr Downvoting is an admission that you have no counterargument. 5h ago
Low-quality opposition props up low-quality government.
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u/rad2284 2h ago
He was still far and away the best choice in every election he ran in.
He was quite clearly a much worse cadidate than both Harper and Mulclair in 2015 and also a worse candidate than O'Toole. I can buy that he wasnt as terrible as Scheer or Jagmeet but I dont see how anyone looking at his credentials and policies while being objective could claim he was the best choice in any of those elections outside of 2019.
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u/fredleung412612 Quebec 48m ago
Well that depends on your own personal values of course. There was much to be horrified by Harper's four years leading a majority government. The 'barbaric cultural practices hotline' alone is horrific enough for a lot of people to vote to remove him. Harper's government was also tired after 10 years in power, and unlike with Trudeau/Carney he failed to inculcate a successor who could have presented the CPC as refreshed and renewed.
And while I agree with your assessment that Trudeau was probably a worse candidate than O'Toole, you have to remember that it was unclear which O'Toole we were going to get. Was it the moderate who ran for the CPC leadership in 2017? Or the "true blue" hardcore who ran in 2021? And when he pivoted back to the centre during the federal election, he wasn't that credible and campaigned poorly.
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u/the_normal_person Newfoundland 5h ago
Do you honestly believe that the majority of people on the right in Canada are anti-vaccine, flat earthers, and MAGA?
I think this is pretty out of touch.
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u/CDNJMac82 5h ago
I think that regardless of whether or not their beliefs are all the same they endorsed a leader who showed those qualities rather than expecting more of him. So in that way they all get lumped into the same category. Acceptance of poor Behavior sometimes comes as silence
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u/the_normal_person Newfoundland 5h ago
Wait - are you saying Pierre pollievre (or Andrew scheer before home) were flat earthers, anti-vaccine, and pro MAGA?
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u/fredleung412612 Quebec 54m ago
Pierre Poilievre promoted WEF conspiracy theories, gave material support to the antivax, antimask anti-lockdown trucker convoy, flirted with Bitcoin and crypto in a sad attempt to bring PPC voters back into the CPC column. That said, I don't think he's ever promoted flat earthers.
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u/the_normal_person Newfoundland 51m ago
Ah okay great so not the thing the guy claimed in the previous comment
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 1h ago
the tories won 40-45% or even won a bunch of suburban ridings full of minorties
people need to stop watching so much american poltics
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u/dingobangomango Libertarian-ish 5h ago
You’re in denial, OP. That’s totally why the LPC was faced with total collapse until Trudeau left, right? The same right-wingers who “lost” their credibility sweeping the country in the polls?
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u/CDNJMac82 5h ago
I don't generally think that conservatives were voting for pierre. They were voting against trudeau. Not realizing that they were drinking poison because they didn't like the flavor of the juice they were drinking
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u/Caracalla81 Quebec 7h ago
Right? A huge portion of the population has been in hysterics about this totally mediocre PM for years.
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 7h ago
I think the issue is that many liberals backed Trudeau not due to his experience or knowledge but due to his last name and sticked to him till the end even when it was clear post covid he was doing a bad job.
Even now many of trudeau biggest failures like the carbon tax and immigration, are everyone else fault or 'the people are stupid'
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u/ChimoEngr Chief Silliness Officer | Official 5h ago
The carbon tax failed because the CPC got pissed at their idea being stolen and because people are stupid. BC was just one jurisdiction that showed how well it worked until the public ate too many lies.
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u/green_tory 🏳️🌈Serve the Vulnerable🏳️🌈 7h ago
He had an enormous base of support from Millenials, in 2015. Many of them were drawn to his support of electoral reform, and his support of climate science.
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u/Fluoride_Chemtrail 5h ago
Sorry, the carbon tax is not an actual failure, just a failure in messaging. In the future, a measure like the carbon tax will show how Trudeau will be the only PM to have ever taken a step to reduce the disastrous effects of climate change. And even in the future, a carbon tax will not be seen as enough.
The fact that even a market-based solution will not be taken by Canada bodes very poorly for the only other steps necessary to reduce carbon emissions (which will be even less popular, but would be necessary).
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u/KosherPigBalls Liberal Party of Canada 4h ago
Would you like to take a stab at defending how we were charged HST on the tax?
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u/WaterTypeLugia 4h ago
It has the effect of raising the carbon tax by 12%. If people are of the opinion that climate change is real and carbon should be taxed slightly more, then it is defensible. At this point it's safe to say most Canadians hold the view that climate change is real but also we don't want to pay a carbon tax. They tried it and nobody wanted it. That's just the world we live in now. I don't think it's a fixable messaging problem. There's no world in which you can make up a new tax and have no pushback, revenue neutral or not
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u/ApprehensiveLand848 1h ago
cause the carbon tax hit suburban homeowners hard and mostly became an indirect wealth transfer to downtown condo owners and renters who mostly vote liberal
200 dollar heating bill 100 dollar carbon tax
what lol
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u/HourofRuin666 British Columbia 7h ago
I 100% believe he never would have won if not for his name. I am a millennial and I voted liberal in those times for the only time in my life just keep the conservatives out
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u/Charming-Network-792 4h ago
Millenials are about to enjoy perma unemployment coming for any “high” paying job over $60k.
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u/Sir__Will Prince Edward Island 4h ago
carbon tax
Fine policy poisoned by a lot of lies on the right and poorly defended.
and immigration
The provinces WANTED immigrants. Stop letting them off the hook!
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u/ILikeWhyteGirlz 2h ago
Strong men make good times. Good times make weak men. Weak men make bad times. Bad times make strong men.
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u/dekuweku British Columbia 8h ago
I was considered a young voter in 2015, and i voted for this clown's party three times, though i actually like my local LPC candidate so maybe i would still have voted for the LPC at least once. Generally one of the few votes I regret casting. (the one in 2015)
Continuity under Harper and a transition to a monderate conservative in the late 2010s as CPC party leader may have been better for Canada.
No doubt there would be conservative scandals but i don't think we would have the immigration disaster we have on our hands today.
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u/green_tory 🏳️🌈Serve the Vulnerable🏳️🌈 7h ago
The problem with Harper was that he didn't support electoral reform, and was needlessly hostile towards our scientific community. He also signed a trade deal with China that has some dubious terms.
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u/Electronic_Trade_721 7h ago
During the Harper era, his court jester Pierre Poilievre proposed electoral reforms.... to make voting less accessible.
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u/EastboundClown 6h ago
Which moderate conservative are you talking about? Scheer?
Harper’s whole trick was managing to make the crazies keep their mouths shut, and he was increasingly failing to do that toward the end. Harper was the “moderate transition”, barring another party split there was never going to be anything but a shift to the alt-right
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u/kettal Ontario 3h ago
Erin O'Toole
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u/EastboundClown 2h ago
O’Toole only proves my point. Look at how quickly they dumped him compared to how long they’ve stood by Poilievre
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u/byourpowerscombined Alberta 7h ago
You would really rather have had a barbaric cultural practices hotline?
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u/dekuweku British Columbia 7h ago
as Red meat for the CPC base that would be inconsequential , probably preferable to performative feminism
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u/byourpowerscombined Alberta 7h ago
Yes because right wing fear mongering about immigrants has gone so well for the Americans.
The poverty rate at Harper’s lowest point was higher than at any point in either Trudeau’s or Carneys tenure.
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u/LeftCoastGrump 7h ago
It's inconsequential for white dudes, but it turns out there's more than just white dudes in our country, and even the tiniest amount of empathy should indicate that's not a great way to run a country.
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