When Justin Trudeau became Canada’s Prime Minister four years ago, progressive men and women around the world swooned with pleasure. The 43-year-old son of Pierre Trudeau, Canada’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Justin was a left-wing dauphin. In addition to being the leader of the Liberal Party – Canada’s equivalent of Labour – he was good-looking, tattooed, pro-immigration and had worked as a bungee-jumping coach before going into politics. He was like a woke version of Tony Blair, except with better hair.
Imagine the gnashing and wailing of teeth, then, when his premiership became engulfed in a corruption scandal last month following the resignation of Jody Wilson-Raybould, Canada’s first indigenous Attorney-General. She claims Trudeau pressured her to cut a deal with one of Canada’s largest companies, SNC Lavalin, which is facing bribery charges. It employs 15,000 people in Quebec – a key state the Liberals need to win at the forthcoming General Election – and Trudeau was reportedly worried about the impact a public trial would have on his Party’s electoral prospects.
In another unfortunate twist, it transpires that Trudeau demoted Wilson-Raybould to Minister of Veterans Affairs when she refused to do his bidding – presumably because he thought it would look bad if he fired a woman from h
