Justin Trudeau: A Lame Duck Prime Minister Struggling To Stay Afloat Even Within Canada

Ottawa: As relations between India and Canada deteriorate, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, already facing challenges domestically, has received strong criticism from India’s Ministry of External Affairs on Monday as it made the Indian High Commissioner to Canada as a "person of interest" as they investigate the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Trudeau is holding his Liberal government by the slimmest of margins after left-leaning New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh withdrew support. Already heading a minority government, he is now seeking new partners to stay afloat.

“The fact is, the Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people. They cannot be changed, they cannot restore the hope, they cannot stop the Conservatives. But we can,” Jagmeet Singh said in a video message after withdrawing support. 

Trudeau Running Minority Government 

Canadian Prime Minister has often been called as a representative of China’s Communist Party of China by leaders of his own nation. 

Pierre Poilievre has often called out Trudeau over the reports that China interfered in the Canadian elections recently. 

“How the prime minister is acting against Canada's interest and in favour of a foreign dictatorship's interests,” asked Poilievre in 2023. 

Liberal Members Wondering ‘Is Trudeau The Right Fit’ For Next Elections

Trudeau also took fire from his own citizens for handling truckers' protests. 

In 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers to address the protests by truck drivers and others that have disrupted Ottawa and blocked border crossings in response to the country’s Covid-19 restrictions. By activating Canada’s Emergencies Act, which grants the federal government extensive authority to restore order, Trudeau emphasized that the military would not be deployed.

(Visuals from Truckers protest-AP)

Violent clashes were witnessed between the citizens and security forces in Canada.

According to several reports, Liberals are thinking of giving someone else a chance for the next elections. Their biggest challenge is Pierre Poilievre, who is most likely to be face for the prime ministerial candidate from Conservatives.

 (Pierre Poilievre, AP)

Is Trudeau Running Out of Time? A Background For Bringing India In Domestic Politics 

He has consistently lagged behind in the polls by double digits for almost a year, and the situation for once a popular prime minister appears so bleak that some veteran Liberals are suggesting he should consider stepping aside to allow someone else a chance to face Poilievre. 

Justin Trudeau's overt support for violent Khalistani elements aligns with the Canadian government's historical protection of individuals involved in anti-India activities. The situation has been exacerbated by Trudeau's competitive courting of Khalistani voters. 

After the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Trudeau’s government faced backlash from the community he thinks of wooing with the idea that it will help him come back to power bashed him. To heal those protesting the killing of Nijjar in Canada, many experts have opined that Trudeau in the name of vote bank politics brought the Indian government into the picture. 

Liberal Party Wondering ‘Is Trudeau The Right Fit For Next Elections’

The Canadian government claimed that Indian government agents, through its foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), assassinated Nijjar on its soil. They asked India to cooperate on the matter, which India agreed upon. However, Canada remained adamant in its stand, and as elections neared, making India’s top diplomat in Canada a “person of interest” did not go well with MEA, resulting in a full-blown diplomatic clash. 

India has announced the expelling of top 6 Canadian diplomats and has pulled back its own diplomats to return to the country. 

Time is not much left for Trudeau to bring radical positive changes on his side, and hence he is working out straight in the hope of banking upon the votes of Khalistani terrorists, a user on X wrote.