Canadian Liberals are scrambling to fill the power vacuum left by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation, using a great deal of tough talk intended to convince voters that the party can stand up to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in a potential tariff and border security conflict.
Trudeau announced his resignation on January 6, using a maneuver known as “prorogation” to force the legislature out of session so he could remain as a lame-duck “caretaker” prime minister until March.
One of the major reasons Trudeau lost the confidence of the Liberal Party was his struggle to handle the incoming U.S. president. Trudeau was already unpopular with the public for a host of reasons, and his unpopularity dragged his party down in some painful special election losses, but the last straw for many of his Liberal colleagues was the election of Trump.
Trudeau did his best to…