Having swept into office nine years ago, the downfall of Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau has come not with a bang but a whimper. Amid by-election defeats, sagging poll numbers, and growing caucus unrest that culminated in the abrupt resignation of Chrystia Freeland, his deputy and the finance minister, in December, Trudeau had repeatedly insisted it was his intention to fight the next federal election (due this October). But on 6 January, at a downbeat press conference in Ottawa, he emerged from his holiday seclusion to confirm what has seemed inevitable for weeks: his resignation and the suspension of parliament until late March while the Liberal Party chooses a successor.
Trudeau’s downfall makes for a striking contrast with the dizzying atmosphere that accompanied his rise. Resurrecting Canada’s Liberal Party in the 2015 election after its worst-ever result four years earlier, his national popularity was quickly converted into a sparkling international brand. Trudeau – young, photogenic and viral – and his victory became a global sensation, as clickbait-mongers swooned over his looks, yoga poses, and colourful socks, and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic giddily anointed a new progressive standard-bearer. Not since Barack Obama’s election in 2008 had a Western leader received such an effusive and uncritical reception.
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