30 tIme October 7, 2019
continue to trail the Conservatives within
the margin of error. By the time we spoke
again, on Sept. 23, the world’s attention
had largely moved on, to the attack on
Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, and to
Donald Trump’s phone call to Ukraine.
The world’s leaders were gathering in New
York City for the U.N. General Assembly,
and it seemed at least possible that the es-
sential variable facing Canada’s battered
Premier was, once again, a global order
that shows every sign of moving away
from him. Trudeau, the unapologetic glo-
balist in a populist world, has work to do.
Four years ago, the firstborn son of
Pierre Trudeau—the cosmopolitan left-
ist who served nearly 16 years as Prime
Minister—burst onto the global stage
looking every inch the scion of a resur-
gent liberalism. Trudeau’s party entered
the campaign in third place, but when
the votes were counted the Liberals had
moved in one election from 36 to 184
seats in Parliament, the largest surge in
Canada’s federal history. Barack Obama
was the leader of the free world, and
Trudeau’s first visit to Washington had a
glow of a torch being passed. The young
children of the Prime Minister and his
wife, the former television host Sophie
Grégoire, scampered on the steps of Blair
House. In the Rose Garden, the Prime
Minister quoted JFK.
That’s all history. These days when
Trudeau strides onstage to greet the lead-
ers of other advanced industrialized de-
mocracies, he’s shaking hands with a
Brexiteer British Prime Minister, a tech-
nocrat struggling to lead an Italy under
the sway of a populist protest party, a
German Chancellor in decline and a
French President cornered by strikes and
protests back home. Canada’s “special
friend” is now Trump, a U.S. President
with kind words for autocrats like Chi-
na’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin
and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Moham-
med bin Salman. In the name of principle,
Trudeau’s government has run afoul of
the last two, with repercussions for both
diplomacy and the Canadian economy.
When greeting voters, he’s still the
Sunny Delight candidate, the charismatic
political natural born on Christmas Day,
- (Not the ideal birthday, he admits.)
And as we sat down for our initial inter-
view in Ottawa, Trudeau was smiling and
seemed genuinely eager to talk. But it’s
easy to see that four years in power have
taken a toll. He’s made his share of mistakes
in office, including a political- influence
scandal that deeply stained his reputa-
tion for openness. An August tracking poll
from Angus Reid Institute set his approval
rating at 31% and disapproval at 61%.
Trudeau’s Conservative opponent,
Andrew Scheer, 40, often polls evenwith or at times better than the incum-
bent. The conventional wisdom holds
that even if the Liberals prevail, it will
be with less than the majority they have
enjoyed since 2015, and Trudeau will
end up governing through a coalition. In
the Ottawa interview, Trudeau was up-
beat and said his message would be too,
come what may. “We know attack ads
work,” he said, but “if you get electedWorld