Justin Trudeau has resigned as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. So this is a good time to look back at the good, the bad and the ugly of his legacy.
The good
Trudeau's biggest personal accomplishment was to lead “Team Trudeau“ to victory over Stephen Harper’s cynical, tired government in 2015. I was a Liberal candidate in that election and originally thought that Trudeau was an arrogant airhead posing as a progressive, and he would not connect with Canadian voters.
I was wrong. Trudeau's energetic 2015 campaign performance, particularly his outstanding leadership debate performances, was essential to the Liberals rising from third place in the polls to victory.
Campaigning on middle-class tax cuts, electoral reform, the legalization of marijuana, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, and moderate "short-term" budget deficits, the Liberals won a big majority. Trudeau then named Canada’s first gender-balanced Cabinet, including Chrystia Freeland, Jane Philpott, and Jody Wilson-Raybould.
The single greatest domestic success of the Trudeau government’s first term was the implementation of the Canada Child Benefit, a massive increase in funding for families that lifted hundreds of thousands of Canadian children out of poverty.
The Trudeau government’s greatest international success was the effective management of Team Trump’s bullying. Team Trudeau listened to and worked closely with expert public servants and effective provincial........