Tomorrow Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading into what may very well be one of his last caucus meetings as the Liberal Party leader. For weeks, reports of a growing revolt within the party and calls from prominent former Liberals have fueled speculation that his ouster is imminent. But if the last nine years has taught us anything, it’s that rumours of Justin Trudeau’s demise, are always greatly exaggerated.Never in the history of the country have we seen a prime minister so able and adept at sloughing off the impact of scandal so easily. It seems to come as naturally to him as to be second nature. It's not unlike how a snake will shed its skin. He emerges from his own scandal induced ecdysis, refreshed, untarnished, and able to carry about like nothing ever happened.What makes it so uncanny is the seriousness of the issues and frequency with which he was able to do so. Let’s recap briefly.Right from the outset of his tenure as prime minister there was the Aga Khan vacation ethics affair in 2017. Following that there was the Kokanee groping ‘Incident’ of 2018 which occurred at the height of the “Me Too” movement and from which he was one of the few to escape unscathed. Afterwards that there was the SNC-Lavalin debacle and the black and brown scandals of 2019. Then in 2020 there was the WE Charity calamity, which rolled into his abysmal pandemic/vaccine mismanagement throughout 2021 and culminated when he broke the law by invoking the Emergencies [War Measures] Act in 2022.Every time he was accused of these improprieties his opponents called for his resignation. Media personalities and columnists would swear that each successive offence was too great for his reputation and the office of the prime minister to sustain. But nonetheless, every time the smoke cleared, there he stood, untarnished offering paternalistic and condescending advice about how “we can all learn from each other” or how “people experience things differently.”Granted the difference this time is that the calls for his resignation are coming primarily from within his own house — but it likely matters not. The lines of communication which might convey logic to him, and demand humility and accountability from him, were cut long ago. So regardless of who places the call he isn’t going to answer. He only listens to one thing, one overpowering voice that drowns out the rest… his ego.Looking at Justin Trudeau’s actions as both man and prime minister over the past nine years through the lens of ego and the sagacious words of Martin Luther King Jr. we get a glimpse of how Wednesday’s caucus meeting may unfold. King said, “You must come to see that it is possible for a man to be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. He may be generous in order to feed his ego and pious in order to feed his pride. Man has the tragic capacity to relegate a heightening virtue to a tragic vice. Without love benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.”In Justin Trudeau’s mind he is the Liberal Party, and the Liberal Party is him. After all he is the son of a famous (or infamous depending on perspective) Liberal prime minister. His personality alone was the primary source of salvation for the beleaguered party following the ignominious electoral defeats under Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. He has led the Liberals through three consecutive electoral victories, and he has sacrificed his marriage and family in the process.He is both the captor and hostage in a bizarre Stockholm syndrome like scenario. Which, if the metaphor bares true, is going make the efforts of those Liberal MP’s who are trying to rescue the man from himself, and the party from man, extremely problematic.Add to that Catch-22 that their efforts are made even more challenging by the inconvenient matter that the Liberal Party has no mechanism to force its leader to resign. Essentially whether he comes or goes, all comes down to Trudeau.With his past successes at weathering all manner of trials and tribulations, and how abrasive the revolt of his MP’s will be too his ego, I predict that he will stubbornly, albeit foolishly stay on. He would rather face electoral martyrdom than be seen or thought to be afraid of fighting Pierre Poilievre who represents the antithesis to his spiritual pride.In short, his party can’t force him to go, and his ego won’t let him.
Tomorrow Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is heading into what may very well be one of his last caucus meetings as the Liberal Party leader. For weeks, reports of a growing revolt within the party and calls from prominent former Liberals have fueled speculation that his ouster is imminent. But if the last nine years has taught us anything, it’s that rumours of Justin Trudeau’s demise, are always greatly exaggerated.Never in the history of the country have we seen a prime minister so able and adept at sloughing off the impact of scandal so easily. It seems to come as naturally to him as to be second nature. It's not unlike how a snake will shed its skin. He emerges from his own scandal induced ecdysis, refreshed, untarnished, and able to carry about like nothing ever happened.What makes it so uncanny is the seriousness of the issues and frequency with which he was able to do so. Let’s recap briefly.Right from the outset of his tenure as prime minister there was the Aga Khan vacation ethics affair in 2017. Following that there was the Kokanee groping ‘Incident’ of 2018 which occurred at the height of the “Me Too” movement and from which he was one of the few to escape unscathed. Afterwards that there was the SNC-Lavalin debacle and the black and brown scandals of 2019. Then in 2020 there was the WE Charity calamity, which rolled into his abysmal pandemic/vaccine mismanagement throughout 2021 and culminated when he broke the law by invoking the Emergencies [War Measures] Act in 2022.Every time he was accused of these improprieties his opponents called for his resignation. Media personalities and columnists would swear that each successive offence was too great for his reputation and the office of the prime minister to sustain. But nonetheless, every time the smoke cleared, there he stood, untarnished offering paternalistic and condescending advice about how “we can all learn from each other” or how “people experience things differently.”Granted the difference this time is that the calls for his resignation are coming primarily from within his own house — but it likely matters not. The lines of communication which might convey logic to him, and demand humility and accountability from him, were cut long ago. So regardless of who places the call he isn’t going to answer. He only listens to one thing, one overpowering voice that drowns out the rest… his ego.Looking at Justin Trudeau’s actions as both man and prime minister over the past nine years through the lens of ego and the sagacious words of Martin Luther King Jr. we get a glimpse of how Wednesday’s caucus meeting may unfold. King said, “You must come to see that it is possible for a man to be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. He may be generous in order to feed his ego and pious in order to feed his pride. Man has the tragic capacity to relegate a heightening virtue to a tragic vice. Without love benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.”In Justin Trudeau’s mind he is the Liberal Party, and the Liberal Party is him. After all he is the son of a famous (or infamous depending on perspective) Liberal prime minister. His personality alone was the primary source of salvation for the beleaguered party following the ignominious electoral defeats under Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. He has led the Liberals through three consecutive electoral victories, and he has sacrificed his marriage and family in the process.He is both the captor and hostage in a bizarre Stockholm syndrome like scenario. Which, if the metaphor bares true, is going make the efforts of those Liberal MP’s who are trying to rescue the man from himself, and the party from man, extremely problematic.Add to that Catch-22 that their efforts are made even more challenging by the inconvenient matter that the Liberal Party has no mechanism to force its leader to resign. Essentially whether he comes or goes, all comes down to Trudeau.With his past successes at weathering all manner of trials and tribulations, and how abrasive the revolt of his MP’s will be too his ego, I predict that he will stubbornly, albeit foolishly stay on. He would rather face electoral martyrdom than be seen or thought to be afraid of fighting Pierre Poilievre who represents the antithesis to his spiritual pride.In short, his party can’t force him to go, and his ego won’t let him.
