Justin Trudeau’s fall contains a warning for Albo and a message for Dutton

Justin Trudeau was, of course, brought down by his own preening awfulness and incompetence. He lasted as long as he did because of a fawning media and, for too long, a feckless opposition, writes James Morrow.

Many years ago, a story went around about a bunch of journalists competing to come up with the dullest headline humanly possible.

The winning entry: “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative”.

How things have changed.

The fall of Justin Trudeau – and the rise of the country’s likely next prime minister, Pierre Poilievre – should put to rest, so to speak, the idea that Canadian politics is the sort of thing that puts people to sleep.

For Australians, there is a lesson in all this.

Namely, cost of living is important, but everything is ultimately driven by culture.

Donald Trump hosted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Mar-a-Lago with the pair discussing the incoming administration’s threat to impose tariffs of 25 per cent on Canadian goods as well as stronger cooperation to tackle the US drug crisis. Picture: X@JustinTrudeau

First, a bit of background. Canada, weather aside, is a lot like Australia.

Both nations are resource rich, with similar-ish population sizes (40 million Canadians strung out mostly along their southern border to our going on 27 million souls clustered mostly along the coast).

Canada's Conservative Party newly elected leader Pierre Poilievre. (Photo by Dave Chan / AFP)

Politically, both have a similar set of problems centred around energy and “net zero” –Canada still has 19 working nuclear reactors but also a carbon tax.

Both our countries are also suffering a massive housing crisis along with social tensions stemming from mass immigration and an increasingly rickety multiculturalism.

And too many Canadians and Australians are forced to make hard choices between food, medicine, and bills because prices are still too high.

Bruce Nuclear Plant near Kincardine on Lake Huron. Canada has 19 nuclear reactors but also a carbon tax. (Photo by Dick Loek/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

Trudeau was, of course, brought down by his own preening awfulness and incompetence. He lasted as long as he did because of a fawning media and, for too long, a feckless opposition.

The lessons for our own Anthony Albanese are clear.

Green dreams and propping up the economy with a migration-driven property Ponzi only go so far when people are hurting and their kids can’t buy a house.

The Coalition would also do well to keep a close eye on Poilievre who – again, putting to rest the old stereotype that his country is dull – has managed to become a minor global phenomenon, an almost impossible task for a Canadian opposition leader.

In 2023, a clip of Poilievre chomping an apple while calmly shutting down a biased journalist looking for a headline went viral.

In the clip Times Chronicle editor Don Urquhart tried to paint Poilievre as a hard right nutter: “You’re obviously taking the populist pathway,” Urquhart says in the video.

“What does that mean?” Poilievre replies, bemused.

“Certainly you tap very strong ideological language quite frequently,” Urquhart says, trying again.

Vancouver has become the third most expensive city for housing in the world after Sydney. Kendall Hill Photo - Getty Images

“Like what?” Poilievre says, totally flustering the interviewer.

Later, when Urquhart claims, “A lot of people would say that you’re simply taking a page out of the Donald Trump book,” Poilievre quietly shut him down by asking, “A lot of people? Like which people would say that?”

Urquhart had nowhere to go, and the clip amassed millions of views from people cheered to see a leftie journalist so elegantly caught out.

Poilievre has also vowed to tackle Canada’s housing crisis which has made Vancouver the third most expensive city to buy a property (Sydney, of course, is second), threatening federal funding to cities that don’t cut red tape and bureaucracy and get building.

But he also gets that demand for houses fuels prices, and that demand is driven by a migration policy that has become detached from any sense of Canadian identity.

Unlike Australia, which seems to be unable to get a handle on its borders, Poilievre promises to lower migration to a rate below that of new homes being built.

And articulating what a lot of Australians feel, the Canadian opposition leader has said that the “multigenerational consensus” over immigration had been broken by a tsunami of international students and low wage workers.

More than that, Poilievre acknowledges the problem with today’s version of multiculturalism, telling author Jordan Peterson on a recent podcast, I want to say, look, we’re not interested in the world’s ethno-cultural conflicts.”

This is surely something Australians sick of anti-Semitic vandalism and Hezbollah flags at CBD demonstrations would agree with.

“We welcome the people who come from places that have been afflicted by war as long as they leave the war behind.”

But, he says, there is a bargain that involves “getting back to a common sense of values and identity and reminding people that they are, when they get here, they are Canadian first, Canada first. Leave the hyphens. We don’t need to be a hyphenated society.”

“We owe a debt of gratitude to the giants who came before us, who fought in wars, who laid down a parliamentary democracy, and who left us behind this incredible inheritance.”

“We’re going to be grateful again, and we’re going to inculcate the values of gratitude for our incredible history, build up the country, celebrate what we have in common rather than dividing, obsessing about what divides us, focusing on the shared values that make us all Canadian,” Poilievre promises.

Replace “Canadian” with “Australian” and, particularly with the annual fight over our national day just getting into gear for 2025, you get the sort of clarity we could use more of.

There’s definitely nothing boring about that.

Originally published as Justin Trudeau’s fall contains a warning for Albo and a message for Dutton