History will not judge Justin Trudeau kindly. Nor should it

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On Jan. 19, 2023, then-New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern stunned her country by announcing her resignation.

She’d been in office for just five years, and was only two years removed from a massive landslide majority. But the pandemic had taken a toll, on both her (politically) and the country. Her Labour Party had fallen behind the centre-right National Party in the polls.

“I’m leaving because, with such a privileged role comes responsibility,” Ms. Ardern said in announcing her planned departure. “The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not.”

I couldn’t help but think back to that moment as I listened to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announce his plans to resign after his party chooses a new leader this spring. His departure has absolutely nothing in common with Ms. Ardern’s, someone who put country before status and personal ambitions.

Mr. Trudeau did not know when to leave, which was likely 18 months ago, if not much earlier. For all the leadership skills he demonstrated throughout the pandemic, he could not escape the political damage it exacted on leaders around the world.

The brutal polling numbers were one measure of how much the country had turned its back on Mr. Trudeau and his party. By-election losses in ridings that were once shoo-ins for the Liberals were another. But the Prime Minister’s ego was so massive, he refused to believe the country didn’t love him enough to give him a fourth term.

What hubris. What conceit.

If Jacinda Ardern couldn’t serve as an inspiration to Mr. Trudeau, you would have thought Joe Biden might have. The U.S. President was the most recent example of what can happen when a leader overstays his or her welcome. Mr. Biden’s initial decision to seek re-election amid obvious cognitive decline would later put the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris in a horrible position. His selfishness paved the way for the return of Donald Trump – just like Mr. Trudeau’s self-centredness will almost certainly pave the way for Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives. In many ways, it’s a breathtaking betrayal of the progressive community to whom he owed so much and to whom he so noisily (and often obnoxiously) devoted himself.

No, Mr. Trudeau couldn’t do the right thing. He had to wait until he became a punchline, an international laughing-stock. He raced to Mar-a-Lago to become the first leader to kiss the ring of Mr. Trump, only to be ridiculed and mocked by the president-elect as the “governor” of the “51st state” of Canada. For any proud Canadian, it was difficult to watch.

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It’s little wonder a wide swath of the country loathes the Prime Minister.

Mr. Trudeau has now gone full circle with the Liberals. When he won the leadership in 2013, the Liberals were a shell of their once formidable selves. Largely thanks to an undeniable charisma that shone even brighter juxtaposed against the grey personality of Stephen Harper, Mr. Trudeau led his party back to a stunning majority in 2015.

But the Liberals began losing steam quickly, only winning power in 2019 and 2021 thanks to the support of other parties. Now, the Liberals stand poised to be reduced to the kind of seat numbers that existed when Mr. Trudeau took over. It’s about as far away from the leave-the-party-in-better-shape-than-you-inherited-it mantra that so many politicians like to quote. Who’d want the job now given the contaminated Liberal brand?

History is often kinder to political leaders than the judgment rendered in real time. Still, it’s hard to look at what Mr. Trudeau accomplished in office and see anything that resembles an exemplary, long-lasting record of achievement.

At one time I would have said his carbon tax was his signature piece of legislation. But he undermined it by giving part of the country a break from it for political purposes. He also failed to confidently sell it to the country. The fact Mr. Poilievre has made eliminating the tax his central, marquee campaign pledge says everything about how poor a job Mr. Trudeau did in marketing it properly.

Now, it’s almost certainly gone after the next election.

The scandals, the blindness to blatant conflicts of interest and proper protocols, the cabinet departures of prominent women amid accusations that Mr. Trudeau’s feminist declarations were more performative than reality: It all served to undermine the meagre résumé Mr. Trudeau’s governments forged over nine years.

Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre, resigned as prime minister after famously reflecting on his future during a walk in the snow. Sadly, Justin did it the way too many other political leaders do: He waited until his unpopularity became so untenable that even those closest to him could no longer support him.