“Good looks, hot body: Meet Canada’s new PM Justin Trudeau” read one headline after Justin Trudeau, leader of Canada’s Liberal Party, was elected as the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada. The second-youngest Prime Minister in Canadian history, Trudeau, with his sharp black eyes and messy brown hair, gave off an aura of youth and vigor. For Trudeau, the son of previous Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, politics seemed like destiny. His campaign channeled ambition and endurance, and his message won him almost 40% of the vote. But now, after a year at the helm, it’s time we examined the celebrity politics of Trudeau: Does elegant charisma always lead to effective policy?
Trudeau’s campaign was about enthusiastic promises. The Liberal Party wanted to reduce debt and promised to run a deficit of ten billion dollars. Trudeau’s party is pro-choice, in favor of legalizing marijuana, and wants to work with Canada’s native and indigenous people. The Trudeau family piloted this standard liberal agenda, all the while exuding family values and likeability. The media glorified him, and he (quite literally) became a national superhero. He’s been lauded as “a strapping man of action” and defined as “a straight-up rock star.” With such high expectations, Trudeau had quite the role to fill.
A year later, Trudeau has been able to capitalize on many of his promises for minorities and families. He campaigned on diversity, and his cabinet is one of the most variegated in the entire world. Besides an equal number of women and men, the cabinet also includes two aboriginal ministers, three Sikh members, two people with disabilities, and a political refugee. Trudeau instituted a Canadian Child Benefit program which gives increased payment to Canadian families with children under 18. With this program, he intends to stimulate the economy, as was promised directly in the Liberal Party platform. Trudeau expanded the Canada Student Grant, which helps low-income families pay for education. Additionally, he established the Prime Minister’s Young Advisory Council, a collection of young people who advise the Canadian government on a host of issues from employment to climate change.
Trudeau’s biggest success, however, has been his foreign policy. The Liberal Party stated that it would increase its refugee intake by twenty-five thousand, and it would also increase funding to help refugees get processed and settled. This position resonated with many Canadians, and saw barely any opposition. Even Conservatives, Trudeau’s political opposites, only disagreed on exact figures and amounts. Trudeau had public opinion on his side and used it to accomplish his policy goals.
While the refugees were initially delayed due to the Paris attacks in November 2015, Canada finally took in the first batch of refugees in December 2015. And who was there to greet them as soon as they stepped off the plane? None other than Trudeau himself, who took pictures with the refugees as they made their way through the airport. Canadians viewed these acts of kindness warmly, and donations poured in to help sponsor more refugees.
Additionally, Trudeau promised that Canada would end its bombing campaign of ISIL. This pledge became a reality on Monday, February 8, when Trudeau announced that Canadian bombers would no longer be attacking targets in Iraq. Instead, Trudeau wished to help train local security forces and give more humanitarian aid.
Unlike his acceptance of refugees, Trudeau’s plan for dealing with ISIL saw its fair share of criticism on both sides. Ronalee Ambrose, interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, called the move a “shameful step backwards.” Many conservatives are requesting an increase of troops in the region and are scared this will look like a retreat or a forfeit in Canadian foreign policy. And on the other side of the aisle, some say Trudeau didn’t do enough. Hélène Laverdière, foreign affairs critic for the New Democratic Party of Canada critiqued that the new advisors “will still be directly supporting the bombings,” and did not endorse the move by Trudeau. Even though the support was not unanimous, the Prime Minister kept both his promise and stunning liberal image intact.
The same cannot be said about every Liberal Party campaign promise. Throughout the entire campaign, Trudeau and the liberals pledged they would fully enact the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Trudeau met with indigenous groups, listened at conferences, and adopted this promise into the Liberal Party platform. However, on Tuesday, July 12, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould claimed the policy would be “a political distraction,” and that the responsibility is on indigenous nations to draft new laws. Many Canadians, even liberals, denounced this injustice to the native community of Canada, and continue to fight with Trudeau today.
Perhaps Trudeau’s largest and most confusing failure has been electoral reform. Canada, like the United States, has “first-past-the-post” voting, in which the candidate with the most votes wins. In some cases, this system can lead to a candidate without a majority winning the election. In 2013, Trudeau expressed interest in a system where voters rank preferences, which would require parties to reach out to become 2nd and 3rd choices. During his campaign, Trudeau promised electoral reform—in whatever manner would be most effective—if there was public support. These claims were vague, but many Canadians were convinced that electing Trudeau could prevent bad government in the future. But in an interview on Wednesday, October 19, Trudeau said that in the past, Canadians were dissatisfied with their government, and wanted to change the system. Today, however, Canadians “have a government they are more satisfied with. And the motivation to want to change the electoral system is less urgent.”
This response has many Canadians upset. To some, it seems like now that the system has benefited Trudeau, he wants to keep it. He has initiated no committees, proposed no plans, and shown no signs of change. Some journalists claim that if Trudeau were truly motivated to change the system, he should have made progress during his first year in office. Progressives in Canada have said that they feel tricked by Trudeau’s deception, and that it appears two-faced to back out on a reform that was backed by people with so many different ideologies.
Through successes and failures, Trudeau has maintained an approval rating around 55-60% according to most polls, a figure which is 7% higher than that of his party as a whole. Some attribute his high ratings to his image, bolstered by events like his accidental photobombing of a wedding photo while shirtless, or that time he modeled some pictures in Vogue. His “high profile; high exposure” politics can be uplifting, like when he marched with his family in the LGBT pride parade in Toronto. Trudeau claims to represent all people, and he has spent a considerable portion of his term working to bring people together and increase diversity.
But sometimes his claims fall short, and Trudeau ends up with very little substance to back up his words. He has effectively accomplished very little for the indigenous people of Canada even after he announced visionary promises. While Trudeau advocates extensively for women’s rights, he has proposed few policy initiatives to directly help them. And even though he claimed the Canadian electoral system was unfair and possibly misguided, he refuses to change it now that he is in office. Trudeau, it appears, embodies an “easier said than done” persona, and ends up being more focused on ideals than solutions.
But, let’s remember, this is only his first year in office. Trudeau still has four more years to prove he’s the “Liberal Messiah” that some have made him out to be. His cult-like following on social media might not demonstrate anything about his accomplishments, but it does show that Canadians have some faith in their leader. And sometimes, a little faith goes a long way in politics.