Letters: Trudeau and his Liberals hang on for dear life

Published Dec 22, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP

Re: The Liberal Implosion, Joe Oliver, Dec. 18
While Joe Oliver is absolutely correct when he says we’re witnessing the implosion of the Trudeau Liberals, it’s also true that we’ve been watching their demise in real time for years. Where most people would jettison the flotsam, Liberals remain firmly entrenched in supporting their captain as long as he remains at the helm.

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Today, the clarion bell rings louder than ever and yet, remarkably, Liberals appear to be oblivious to the fact that the rut they’re in is nothing more than a coffin with the ends kicked out.
Paul Baumberg, Dead Man’s Flats, Alta.

If Trudeau really cares about Canada, he needs to call an election and not to resign. An election will let Canadians truly voice their feelings and opinions.
Joseph Minkowitz, Toronto.

It is a national scandal of epic proportions for Canadians that we cannot remove the existing government from office by either plebiscite or referendum. The country is being held hostage by two political parties that have demonstrably lost the confidence of the people of Canada and yet insist on staying in power.

Canadians should be organizing a mass protest in Ottawa on Parliament Hill to showcase our disgust. We are much too complacent as a nation, while our country is being destroyed by politicians who are far beyond their past due date. For Canadians to be forced to wait until October 2025 for an election is asking us to be complicit in our own civilizational demise.
Jack Shore, Toronto.

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It is remarkable how left-leaning parties in both Canada and the United States have difficulty dealing with leaders long past their best before date.

In the U.S., the problem became very obvious after the fact. Party insiders hid President Joe Biden’s declining mental capacity from public view. For Democrats, public interest was discarded in favour of the party’s interest.

In Canada, the circumstances are more subtle, but obvious. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won the 2015 election over a tired Conservative government on the basis of his name and his social justice platitudes. In two subsequent elections, the Liberals were held to a minority. Indeed, the Conservatives won more popular support on both occasions. Trudeau’s green transition, special interests, uncontrolled spending and anti-oil agenda was facing increasing levels of rejection.

In a shock to the nation, Chrystia Freeland’s resignation and calling out of the prime minister for all his foibles sent shivers through party members. Cabinet resignations and calls from Liberal MPs have failed to unseat the prime minister. Like their counterparts in the Democratic party, the apparatchiks in the Liberal party appear to support the wounded prime minister. And it appears as though he is determined to lead the party into the next election.

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Like the public humiliation the Democrats took in the U.S. election, the Canadian electorate will have to do what the Liberal party can’t, or won’t, do.
Robert Teskey, Ottawa.

PM must go

Re: Trudeau Should Follow Freeland, Michael Higgins, Dec. 17
On Aug. 7, 1974, U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, House Minority Leader John Rhodes and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott warned embattled President Richard Nixon that he faced impeachment for his role in the Watergate scandal. The result: he announced his resignation the next evening.

Where are the three Liberal party elders who would meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and persuade him to promptly resign for the sake of Canada and, not least, the Liberal party’s standing with the electorate going forward?
Orest Slepokura, Calgary.

No hero

Re: Freeland Stands Up For Canada, Tasha Kheiriddin, Dec. 18.
Let’s not be too quick to lionize former finance minister Chrystia Freeland. She tendered her resignation after being informed that she was about to be replaced. In her resignation letter, she cited “costly political gimmicks,” while knowing full well that the already excessive $40-billion budget deficit had grown to $61.9 billion since her spring budget.

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Real courage would have been resigning in advance over out-of-control spending, not when faced with imminent replacement.
John Budreski, Whistler, B.C.

Everyone has fallen into the trap thinking Chrystia Freeland finally stood up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by resigning. No! She’s used the line often seen in movies: “You can’t fire me. I quit!” Had Trudeau not advised her that he was replacing her, she would have remained finance minister and would have delivered the dreadful fall economic statement about the country’s $61.9-billion deficit with a smug smirk saying “all is well.”

She’s the one who’s steered Canada’s economic down-slide for the last five years. And she’s now hoping that all will be forgiven when she makes her bid to replace Trudeau as Liberal leader?
Tony Borbely, Calgary.

Dishonourable conduct

Re: Freeland Isn’t a Martyr, Jamie Sarkonak, Dec. 19.
Jamie Sarkonak is bang on. If you are a woman, and have been dumped by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, your status is the eyes of the public gets a boost. Prior to running into disfavour with Trudeau, these women were doing what he wanted done: lax criminal justice laws, drug consumption sites, higher debt and so on.

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Canadians are not happy with Trudeau’s policies and should not be feeling sorry for those responsible for carrying them out. Having said that, after defending Trudeau for years, the manner in which Chrystia Freeland was removed of her responsibilities was really amateurish. I would not put much trust in Trudeau. Just ask the brothers from WE Charity. In tough times, he is not going to stand by you. Clearly, it is all about him.
Rick Hird, Whitby, Ont.

Once again, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s autocratic instincts took over and managed to create another scandal by preventing the timely presentation of the fiscal update on Monday. If it is true that Trudeau informed Chrystia Freeland on Friday that she was going to be replaced as finance minister, she should have done the honourable thing and resigned immediately.

That would have forced Trudeau to find another finance minister by Monday and allowed the normal procedures to take place in Parliament. Instead, the timing of the events made it impossible for the opposition parties and the media to  review the information and ask the appropriate questions.

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But the ultimate insult was Trudeau not even having the courage to stand in his place in Parliament and answer for his behaviour. Once again, he gets to abdicate his duties, run out the clock, slither away and flip the bird to us all. Totally disgusting.
Ed Lacelle, Gatineau, Que.

Socialist greed

Re: Singh Can’t See Past His Maserati Parking Spot, Adam Pankratz, Dec. 20.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is a hypocritical bore. He’s a rich man who pretends to care about Canadians while really only caring to stuff his pockets with even more taxpayer money. He’s only supporting the Liberal government in order to secure his own government pension.

Singh is all too aware that the next election will bring about his demise, alongside Trudeau. NDP supporters have seen the person they elected to lead their party transition quickly and steadily into a Liberal hack, something that most ardent NDP supporters detest. Singh is counting down the days to when he qualifies for that handout. Then, and only then, will he pull his support for the Trudeau government.

The good news is … I, for one, will gladly pay to get rid of both Trudeau and Singh!
Murray Edworthy, Cochrane, Alta.

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