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Braid: Justin Trudeau's dazzling life and the wreckage he left behind

Pierre Trudeau's legacy as Canadian Prime Minister might be called haunting, while his son Justin's can only be described as annoying

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“He haunts us still.” Those were the famous first words in a 1990 biography of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

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His son, Justin? He annoys us still. The modern Trudeau is too frivolous for haunting.

Braid: Justin Trudeau's dazzling life and the wreckage he left behind Back to video

The book by Christina McCall and Stephen Clarkson was often elegiac in tone. Whatever one thought of Pierre Trudeau, he commanded respect.

Justin has been out of politics for just over a year, since Mark Carney won the Liberal leadership on March 15, 2025.

Trudeau’s post-politics life is exactly what could have been expected, a round of flashy celebrity appearances with a pop star paramour, Katy Perry.

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Recently they danced to Justin Bieber’s performance at the Coachella festival, then moved on to mingle with Harry and Megan at a Netflix promotion.

There’s always been a taste for high celebrity in the family. His mother, Margaret, partied with the Rolling Stones in 1977 when her marriage to Pierre was falling apart.

But sadness was there, too.

In 1974, I saw Pierre holding Margaret’s hand, gazing at her with deep affection, when she was hospitalized in Montreal for what was called “serious emotional stress.”

Purely by chance, I happened upon them in the garden area of the hospital.

I didn’t write a word about the encounter at the time, or even tell my editors it occurred. The moment was too private.

But Pierre knew I was a reporter and thought I was stalking them. He hated me ever afterward.

Justin’s post-politics life is his own business. He chooses to make it public, which is no surprise.

In 2015, at the start of his reign, he brought his cabinet to Kananaskis for a retreat.

At one point the hotel lobby was packed with families and children milling around expectantly.

They’d been told by Trudeau’s staff that the great man would appear. Soon he arrived to squeals and cheers. He spent nearly a half-hour doing selfies.

That pretty much set the tone for the next 10 years of Justin Trudeau.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I once submitted to a photo with him, thinking our young grandchild would like to have a picture with the prime minister.

A 10-year-old of good sense, she didn’t want the photo.

If flashy lifestyle was the only complaint about Trudeau, it would hardly be worth mentioning.

But this man left behind such a pile of political wreckage.

He created, almost single-handedly, the separatist movement that’s so active in Alberta today.

Because of the Liberals’ decade of centrist hostility under Trudeau, many people believe that no matter how many good things Prime Minister Carney might do, his party will always betray Alberta for the benefit of Ontario and Quebec.

Pierre stoked this belief with the National Energy Program in 1980. Justin brought it to a boil with a solid decade of anti-Alberta, anti-energy legislation.

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The early ’80s separatism flared and then subsided. Justin’s creation is much more serious and pervasive.

His fixation on identity politics divided Canadians. He said we are the first “post-national state,” while his policies threatened to make us no state at all.

“There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada,” he told an American publication.

This man set about killing investment in energy and Canada’s resource industry. The green dream would somehow replace all the lost value.

What a disaster. A new Royal Bank study shows that during Justin Trudeau’s reign, two dollars left the country for every dollar that arrived. The net outflow of capital during those years was $1 trillion.

“We’re exporting capital at scale, at the same time that Canada is ranking dead last in the G7 when it comes to capital investment,” said RBC executive Jordan Brennan.

“Our investment in machinery, equipment and IP (intellectual property) is half the United States level.”

To match other G7 nations, Canada will have to attract $1.8 trillion in the next decade.

Party on, Justin. You taunt us still.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X and Bluesky: @DonBraid

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