2019 NATO summit in London, Donald Trump, president of the United States, was mocked by the free world leaders Justin Trudeau, Emanuel Macron, and Boris Johnson; it would appear that Trudeau told his comrades that He was late because he takes 40-minute press conference off the top. Smeared self-made man U.S. president did not like it a bit. Yet history has always had a sense of humor; 4 years later, it was Justin Trudeau who got mocked by his friends, and Donald Trump proved to him that being born into a prominent family does not mean you CAN play at the high table.
The prince took the rein of Canada in the hope that he would be better than his father, but few sons are the equals of their fathers; most fall short, all too few surpass them. He was supposed to be great, experienced, a champion of the new age, and the one who could bridge between old guys from the last century and new generations who could guide a nation through the roaring sea. What we have witnessed was a man with low leadership and managerial skills, a lack of empathy and strength to make the shots, choosing public appeasing rather than public-serving, inefficient political and economic knowledge, and the wrong person at the top governmental position. Positioning the wrong person in a leadership position creates chaos, like:
Money Laundering: his government did nothing to crack down on money laundering, ignoring the United Nations Financial Action Task Force report on loopholes and lack of controls and remedies. Therefore, a wave of corrupted-known criminals headed down to Canada to wash their money in real estate, companies resulting in high prices in real estate and destabilizing businesses.
As of June 2023, there were approximately 1.3 million businesses with employees in Canada (Source), with 98.0% being small businesses (those with 1 to 99 employees), approximately equating to 1.274 million small-size businesses. Businesses with 100 to 500 employees (medium-sized) employed 21.0% of employees (Source). Businesses with more than 500 employees (large size) employed 16.0% of employees. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Canada from $1.56 Trillion in 2015 reached $2.14 Trillion in 2022 (Source), which shows a 37.18% surge, while according to Statistics Canada, businesses are facing a variety of obstacles including rising inflation, the rising cost of inputs, rising interest rates, debt costs, recruiting and retaining skilled employees, and cost of insurance.
The debt-to-GDP ratio is a measure of a country’s federal debt and its gross domestic product (GDP). By comparing what a country owes with what it produces, the debt-to-GDP ratio indicates the country’s ability to pay back its debt. Therefore, when we compare Canada with the US and the Euro, the debt-to-GDP ratios for the US, Canada, and the Euro area will be as follows:
Canada: The combined federal and provincial debt-to-GDP ratio in Canada is expected to grow from 65.7% to 74.6% in 2022/231.
United States: The US Federal Debt as a percent of Gross Domestic Product was 119.47% in Q2 20231.
Euro Area: The general government gross debt to GDP ratio in the euro area stood at 90.3% at the end of the second quarter of 20232.
Canada has surpassed 40 million people when 1,158,705 of this population added since July 2022 (+2.9% increase), showing an open door policy to a market that is not ready to facilitate this mass movement. Although 17.23% of the current population are refugees from other countries, the federal government shall take care of it, meaning a strong economy with a massive success rate at the bottom of the business pyramid to the top should operate while the opposite of that is happening now.
Still, Trudeau, unlike his open-door policies toward immigration and refugee strategies, has a different problem: Foreign Direct Investment. The Trudeau government has experienced the lowest average rates of growth of business investment compared with its predecessors, even with a better GDP rate. Residential and non-residential (business, etc.), construction, machinery, equipment, technologies, and intellectual property, he presided over an average annual decline of 0.2% in the four years (2016-19) leading up to the 2020 recession (Source). This narrower measure of business investment declined by 1.5% annually during the Trudeau era (2016-19).
Prime Minister Harper (2011-14) saw an average growth of 7.9%, and the Chrétien government (1997-00) had an average annual growth of 9.3% (Source), making Justin Trudeau the worst Prime Minster in business investment growth.
Not being transparent and afraid of public view regarding COVID-19 and its Aid Distribution, the Trudeau government remained somehow ambiguous and not-transparent in publishing details and data regarding how the government money was distributed between which companies and people who received it, and for what reasons, the very thing that brought him to the power and he supposed to fight against muddy political deals.
His poor performance did not remain in economics and spread to politics and his office administration. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized on behalf of the Canadian parliament after a Ukrainian Soldier who used to be a hero then found out to be actually a Nazi during World War 2. In the meantime, everyone stood applauding him, probably for fighting in Hitler camp! It is simply awkward information management, which directly blames Trudeau for not choosing his staff correctly and based on expertise.
Clashing with Canadian-prominent figures, specifically Jordan Peterson, a renowned academic researcher and clinical psychologist on different subjects, pushing them out of the country will damage Canadian – academic society in the mid and long term significantly. Dr. Peterson famously wrote: “I’m at my daughter’s wedding in California. I will never forget @justintrudeau that my father is not here because of your utterly unconscionable, unconstitutional, and vindictive travel ban”.
The worst-case scenario yet, by far, is the truck driver strike over COVID-19 restrictions. The problem is not whether he was right or wrong to put restrictions or declare a national emergency as many governments did, and frankly, based on the data available at that time, it was a difficult decision to make. The problem is his way of handling the situation and turning a simple strike into a national and international (as Americans joined their brothers over the border) incident. A Prime Minister, like Justin Trudeau’s family and academic background, is expected to behave like a grown-up and not to call his people “fringe minority”, and their view is not acceptable by the government, defined as a dictatorship. In a constitutional republic, even the minority has a voice and it seems the Canadian PM didn’t get the memo and began debating people on the sidewalk instead of asking them to follow the proper procedure to address their concerns through the parliament, as it devised.
Canada was supposed to be a successful Republic, not a playground for a child to play in with. However, the most tragic moment was the 2019 G20 Summit, where Justin Trudeau sat in his chair and waited for Chinese President Xi Jinping to face him and shake his hand. He intentionally never looked at him, and worse, Trudeau offered a handshake to Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, who looked at him and then turned his back. Although Trudeau patiently waited to shake Bolsonaro’s hand, and eventually they shook hands, Canada is not a minor player in the world economy. It is very prominent, and Justin’s father made sure of that. Canada doesn’t deserve such humiliation, and even Justin Trudeau himself doesn’t deserve such humiliation, no one does.
There is a saying in Persian culture that “whatever that happens to us, comes from us.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems not ready and does not have enough experience and expertise to handle this position; therefore, he has two options. Option one is to try to change his behavior and walk toward a more constructive approach, listening to his people, putting his administration in order, and apologizing for such behavior. Option two, well, walk away!
