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Too little, too late

Trudeau resignation is not enough to change Liberal fortunes just as it wasn't when his father did it in 1984
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Editorial

It had become clear more than a year ago that the Liberal Party of Canada would likely not win another election under Justin Trudeau.

Yet the leader hung on until just last week before doing what he needed to do to give the party a chance to regroup and rebrand with a new face. 

It was the right thing to do, he just didn't do it soon enough.

When Trudeau, the latter, became prime minister, it was inevitable parallels would be drawn with his father.

Pierre Elliott Trudeau also resigned just months before an election, but also not before hanging on too long and shepherding the venerable Liberal Party popularity to historic lows.

It was February 29, 1984 that Trudeau, the former, finally accepted the writing on the wall and stepped down. There were, of course, highly competent MPs waiting in the wings, as there are now.

In June, John Turner, a former justice and finance minister, took over as party leader and prime minister. But it was too little, too late to reverse Liberal fortunes.

The election, held on Sept. 4, 1984 remains the biggest whooping the Liberals ever took and the most recent election in which the winning party took both the majority of the seats and the popular vote.

At this point, it's hard to imagine history not repeating itself.

Despite the current crop of highly competent, potential successors to Trudeau, by the time March 24 rolls around and one of them is elected, there probably isn't enough time to stem the Conservative tide. Even the big names in political circles — Dominic Leblanc, Chrystia Freeland, Marc Carney etc. — are relatively unknown to the average voter.

Whoever wins the leadership race is destined to become Canada's fourth shortest-serving prime minister after Sir Charles Tupper (68 days), Turner (79 days) and Kim Campbell (132 days).

Get used to saying Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre. 

 



Thom Barker

About the Author: Thom Barker

After graduating with a geology degree from Carleton University and taking a detour through the high tech business, Thom started his journalism career as a fact-checker for a magazine in Ottawa in 2002.
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