It has been a thoroughly enjoyable week in Canadian politics as the knives came out for Trudeau the Younger and chaos reigned in Ottawa after he fired his finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who attempted to return the favor. Two Liberal cabinet ministers resigned; the Liberal caucus is increasingly clamouring for Trudeau’s resignation; things are getting so bad, I noted, that Trudeau was sure to march into the House of Commons soon to declare that he would never, ever compromise on abortion.
For my part, I would like Trudeau to stay in office, because I would like to see him personally suffer an electoral repudiation so thorough that the Liberal caucus will be able to fit comfortably into a Honda Civic. The damage this government has done to this country is staggering, and we need the collective national catharsis of seeing Trudeau’s airtight ego punctured by a historic event of such magnitude that even he will be forced to reckon with it. In the meantime, as I predicted, Trudeau is already pivoting to his favourite subject: abortion.
To say Trudeau has survived this week’s events would be premature, but it does appear that he will cling onto power until the rest of his cabinet ministers decide to individually stomp on his fingers. At the Liberal Christmas party, he appeared defiant—and sure enough, he boasted that his party stands for “a woman’s right to choose!” A few sentences later, without irony, he claimed that Liberals also stand “for those who would exploit the vulnerable”—this from the most pro-abortion prime minister in Canadian history who has spent several years attempting to expand eligibility for assisted suicide to the mentally ill.
Trudeau also accused Pierre Poilievre of being a “grinch,” and cited as one example Poilievre’s previous record of “voting repeatedly against abortion.” There were boos. “Now he claims to be pro-choice,” Trudeau said, immediately warming to his favourite subject. “Let me be clear: Being pro-choice means standing up to the people who would take away that freedom, and that would mean standing up to his own party, which he won’t do!” That line got a standing ovation. “Now, don’t get me wrong,” he went on. “Believing in a woman’s right to choose would be a good start for Conservatives, but as Liberals, we don’t just believe in a woman’s right to choose, we’re ready to fight for it every single day!” Long cheers, fist-pumping.
There was no recognition, at the podium or in that room, of how ghoulish it is to celebration abortion at a Christmas party. I wouldn’t call Trudeau a “grinch”; Canada’s modern-day Herod would be a more appropriate comparison. But we’re going to be seeing much more of this in the weeks and months ahead. Trudeau’s feminist credentials are finally under fire not just from the Right, but from the Left—especially after he and Chrystia Freeland experienced her demotion so differently. Former environment minister Catherine McKenna posted on social media that after that, she isn’t sure “the prime minister gets to call himself a feminist anymore.” (Apparently Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott were freebies.)
Trudeau is sinking in the polls, and so he is going to try to use the corpses of aborted Canadian babies as flotation devices to buoy himself. Under the Trudeau regime, Canadians may not think they can afford to have children. But not to worry—Trudeau will work every day to ensure that every Canadian can get an abortion, even when they can’t get anything else. As the bloodthirsty cheers and standing ovation at their Christmas Party revealed, that’s what the Liberal Party really stands for.
