Who is Justin Trudeau? Who is the man who has led Canada for almost a whole decade? Why is he resigning as Prime Minister?
Trudeau was born December 25, 1971, to the Prime Minister of Canada at the time his father Pierre Trudeau, and his mother Margaret Trudeau. He went on to graduate from McGill University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1994, he also completed an education program and taught for many years in Vancouver.
Trudeau hits his first spotlight moment after delivering a eulogy at his father’s funeral in October of 2000. The Canadian Broadcast Corporation calls it “perhaps … the first manifestation of a dynasty.” Following his father’s passing he continues to show support for the Canadian Liberal Party by staying involved with inner workings and ceremonies.
In 2008 Trudeau campaigned for a year in Papineau for a federal election called for by the Prime minister at the time Stephen Harper. Trudeau won the position and is seen as all others in parliament as a potential future Prime Minister.
His first legislation in Parliament asked for the creation of a national voluntary service policy for young people. Later on, he would move to criticism for youth, citizenship, and immigration in 2010. He would also call the government out on legislation on human smuggling.
He would continue in Parliament and run for liberal leadership in 2013 beating out his competition. In his early leadership, his party surged in popularity continuing his work until 2015 after the longest official campaign in over a century, Trudeau led the Liberals to a decisive victory in the federal election.
He was sworn in on November 4, 2015, as of being sworn in Trudeau was the second youngest prime minister. He also had the country’s first gender-balanced cabinet with this being revealed he built off of the progressive image he had made. With this he showed support for the environment, refugee rights, and Indigenous rights, he even styled himself as a feminist.
After being sworn in the next five years weren’t all perfect after he had a series of scandals that would chip away at Mr. Trudeau’s reputation. He was also accused of groping a reporter in 2000. He took another hit after he was called out by an ethics commissioner to circumvent, undermine, and discredit his former justice minister and attorney general over a criminal case against an engineering corporation.
Through 2020 to 2022 he did what he could to mandate restrictions against COVID-19. He would go on to call a snap election in 2021 so he could use a strong mandate to help Canada recover after the pandemic. He won the snap election but lost the Liberal Party’s majority votes. In the 2022 protest that paralyzed Ottawa the capital of Canada over vaccine requirements, Trudeau took rare measures and took the right of assembly and permitted police to be more aggressive, this included restricting travel to other countries. During all this, the housing market and inflation had taken over the country.
Over the last two years, Trudeau has lost power over the Canadian Liberal party while needing to pass legislation on tightening immigration. Over the last six months, the Liberal Party has been pushing for Trudeau to step down from the position, especially after letting in three million people in the last three years straining the country’s healthcare and other important systems. Finally going into 2025 Trudeau has caved and stepped down as Canadian Prime Minister.
