Will All The West’s Leftist Leaders Go The Way Of Trudeau?

Less than a week into 2025, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, often known as the “Crown Prince of Woke Politics,” announced his resignation — an event that is likely to reshape the Canadian political landscape nearly ten months before the country’s general election.

Trudeau, the eldest son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, took office in 2015 and presented himself as a leading figure in leftist politics. He declared that Canada under his leadership would become the “first postnational state,” characterized by “no core identity” and “no mainstream,” only “shared values.”

Throughout his tenure, Trudeau has championed a range of leftist causes, from climate change to “gender equality.” However, his grand promises, such as the commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, despite the significant economic role of the oil and gas industry, and the pledge to plant two billion trees in one of the coldest nations on earth to absorb carbon emissions, are not without their contradictions.

To establish himself as an inclusive leader, Trudeau insisted that his cabinet maintain a “gender-equal” structure, appointing women to 50 percent of the cabinet positions. He declared the government’s budget to be “gender-sensitive,” introducing billions of dollars in new spending on women’s issues, such as childcare. Additionally, Trudeau’s government directed public employees to use “gender-neutral language” when interacting with the public to prevent any perception of bias toward a particular sex or “gender.”

Trudeau’s attempts at showcasing inclusivity, such as dressing his entire family in traditional Indian outfits during a state visit to India in 2018, sparked considerable public ridicule. His reputation as a champion of racial and gender equality was tarnished after photos emerged of him wearing blackface and brownface at various parties in the early 2000s. Additionally, a groping allegation made by a journalist in 2018 further damaged his image.

The Covid pandemic revealed the true nature of Trudeau: Beneath the pretty baby face lies a tyrant, and his preached tolerance did not extend to those who disagreed with him. When Canadian truckers launched peaceful protests in early 2022, voicing their concerns about Trudeau’s draconian Covid-19 restrictions that were affecting their livelihood, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canada’s history to suppress their voices. Canadian police reportedly “deployed pepper spray and stun grenades” in an attempt to disperse the peaceful protestors and their supporters. 

Additionally, Trudeau’s government banned public assembly, restricted travel, and extended the nation’s “Terrorist Financing” rules to freeze protestors’ and their supporters’ personal accounts and seize funds raised from crowdfunding platforms. This misuse of power was later deemed “unreasonable” and a violation of Canadian citizens’ fundamental freedoms by a federal court.

Under Trudeau’s leadership, Canada has faced troubling trends toward political authoritarianism and serious economic decline. Paul Beaudry, a former deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, warned that Canadians are collectively poorer compared to many of their peers in developed nations. The wealth divide between Canada and the United States has widened alarmingly: Between 2002 and 2022, Canada’s GDP per capita fell from 80 percent of U.S. GDP per capita to just 72 percent. In 2023, while Canada’s population increased by 3.2 percent — largely due to a surge in immigration — the economy grew by a mere 1.1 percent. This imbalance puts immense pressure on essential services like health care and housing.

The challenging economic landscape compelled Trudeau to announce a substantial reduction in immigration targets last fall, with the intent to “pause” population growth to provide “all levels of government time to catch up.” However, this abrupt change in immigration policy was widely regarded as too little, too late.

The impending threat of a 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, has likely accelerated Trudeau’s political decline. Trump’s ultimatum, which calls for effective measures to tackle drug and human trafficking from Canada to the U.S., and his flippant remark about Canada potentially becoming the 51st state of the U.S. have created anxiety in Canada’s political sphere.

Trudeau’s political isolation was further compounded when Chrystia Freeland, his finance minister and longstanding ally, resigned in December over disagreements on strategies to protect Canada’s economy from Trump’s tariff threat. A year-end poll found Trudeau’s popularity hit rock bottom, and even members of his own Liberal Party called for his resignation.

Trudeau’s announcement of his resignation on Jan. 6, 2025, concludes nine years of political and economic turmoil in Canada. He is the first leftist leader of a Western democracy to fall after Trump’s election, but he won’t be the last.

In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Party may be next. Like Canada, Britain faces immigration backlash and a struggling economy, with a survey warning that the economy is “headed for the worst of all worlds.” Concurrently, Starmer’s government is imprisoning citizens for “hateful” social media posts while neglecting a crucial inquiry into the systemic rape of thousands of primarily young, white British girls by mostly Pakistani Muslim men in Labour-controlled areas since 1970. This scandal has been covered up for decades because it involves “the wrong kind of racially motivated crime,” according to writer Dominic Green. Awareness of this issue only grew after Elon Musk recently tweeted about it.

On the day that Trudeau announced his resignation, Keir Starmer, at a press conference, accused anyone advocating for inquiries into the unfolding scandal and its cover-up of simply riding the ” bandwagon of the far-right.” This tone-deaf remark drew widespread backlash, with Conservative MP Daniel Hannan asserting that Starmer is “not fit to be prime minister.”

Meanwhile, in Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz faced a crisis as his governing coalition collapsed last year, primarily over the mismanagement of the country’s economy. With annual growth stagnating at a mere 0.2 percent over the past five years, the soaring energy costs — largely resulting from the government’s climate policies — only exacerbated the situation. Scholz was also under pressure from the rise of the anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Scholz failed to secure support in a confidence vote that took place on Dec. 16, meaning Germany will face early elections in February.

From Canada to the U.K. and Germany, it’s becoming clear that after years of dominion, leftist politicians in Western democracies are losing their grip on power in 2025. This change is likely driven by two significant factors.

First, voters are increasingly disillusioned with rising crime rates, soaring food prices, high energy costs, and a lack of job opportunities — issues that they attribute to leftist policies such as open borders and climate change. Voters are demanding solutions rather than more of the same.

Second, we are witnessing what I refer to as the “Trump effect.” Trump’s resounding defeat of the left’s favored candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, has sparked a newfound confidence among voters and conservative political parties across other Western democracies. They now believe it is possible to defeat leftist politicians at the ballot box. Even before officially taking office, Trump is reshaping the political landscape, inspiring a wave of change few could have predicted.

The year 2025 doesn’t appear to favor Western leftist leaders, but it offers significant hope for a revitalization of Western civilization.