On Monday (18 September), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kicked off a one-sided diplomatic war with India by falsely accusing New Delhi of killing Khalistani terrorist Harjeet Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. In a deliberate ploy, he made the allegations in the Canadian parliament without presenting any proof.
Nevertheless, Trudeau’s shenanigans are reminiscent of those of any politician pandering to his alliance partner Jagmeet’s NDP and Khalistani elements.
The latest accusations against India are the culmination of Trudeau’s ongoing narrative of “foreign interference”. Notably, he raked this narrative recently when India doubled down the pressure on the Canadian government to not provide a safe haven for Khalistani terrorists.
Regarding his meeting with PM Modi, Trudeau had said that he had many conversations with PM Narendra Modi on the issue of Khalistan extremism and “foreign interference“.
With his boogie of a foreign conspiracy, he aims to achieve three key objectives. First flare up national pride by painting one common national adversary. Second, galvanise Khalistani terrorists behind its government and safeguard his Prime Ministership. Lastly to divert attention from his plummeting popularity because of his disastrous governance and domestic issues getting out of hands.
Trudeau’s disapproval rating on verse to breach all-time high
Evidently, Trudeau’s approval rating has dipped to an unprecedented low fluctuating in the low 30s while his challenger Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is gaining steam and has become Canadians’ top choice for prime minister.
According to the latest survey by the Angus Reid Institute, published in the first week of September, 32% of respondents named Poilievre as their favourite pick for prime minister, while only 17% said they still prefer Trudeau.
Among the younger Canadian voters, the Conservative Party is leading ahead of the incumbent Liberal Party. According to local Canadian media, young voters who voted decisively for Trudeau in the 2015 election are shifting en mass to the Conservative party at a pace that hasn’t been seen since the 1980s.
The latest Abacus Data survey revealed that Millennials were nearly twice as likely to vote Conservative as Liberal. Similarly, Conservatives led among the younger Generation Z. Among the 18-27 age group, Conservatives (32%) are ahead with an 8% margin.
The Angus Reid Institute survey added that Trudeau’s disapproval rating (63%) is almost double that of his approval rating (33%).
According to Morning Consultant, on a weekly moving average basis, this week, Justin Trudeau’s approval rating is around 37%.
Mind you, he hasn’t been this unpopular since early 2020, when Covid was at its peak and he was getting flakes for a series of anti-pipeline rail and border blockades. At that time, his disapproval rating reached an all-time high of 64%. Going by the current trends, his worst is yet to arrive as his popularity has only seen a downward trajectory in the past 3-4 months and his worst performance could be breached in upcoming poll surveys.
Currently, Canadians are infuriated with his 9-years’ of governance and are trading the worst phase of the economy with unaffordable housing and the rising cost of living.
The Angus Reid survey also found that the “cost of living” is the topmost priority issue for Canadian voters followed by health care and housing affordability. Whereas the Liberal Party’s major plank on environment and climate change is losing traction and is fourth on the priority list for Canadians.
Similarly, another survey, Abacus Data poll showed that “rising cost of living” is by far the number one issue for Canadians under 40.
Just like young voters, Canadian Muslim voters have been disenfranchised from the Liberal party and have drawn swords over the imposing of woke agenda on the community.
In a strongly worded letter, Canadian Muslim Organisations and the Canadian Council of Imams have extended in principle support to the 1 million March for Children which is said to have been kick-started by a man named Kamel El-Cheikh as a counter to Trudeau’s woke agenda.
The Founder of the #1MillionMarch4Children Kamel El-Cheikh issues warming to Teachers and
— 1 Million March 4 Children (@nlmedia11) September 18, 2023
Unions.
"If you dare to Counter-Protest, we will make note of that, and we will make sure that every Pride Festival, every Pride Event, will be met with a Counter Protest." pic.twitter.com/aC8LxUEQoF
In a written statement, the Muslim organisations jointly said, “Canada is regrettably moving in a direction where advocates of sexual and gender ethics contrary to the Islamic faith are going beyond their limits by imposing their worldview on our children, often without the knowledge or consent of parents.”
Statement by Canadian Muslim Organizations on the #1MillionMarch4Childrenhttps://t.co/jrUJnLcvxa pic.twitter.com/WGqE8kPofl
— Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) (@MACNational) September 18, 2023
It added, “Enforcing agreement with beliefs and practices that are incompatible with the Islamic moral code is harmful to our children. This means that mandated celebration or affirmation of LGBTQ, including direct or indirect impositions to participate in “Pride” events and activities, constitutes an infringement on the legal rights of Muslims.”
The Muslim ogranisations demanded that every child deserves a coercion-free educational environment, where they are not forced to engage in activities contrary to their faith.
This is not the first time that Muslims and the Trudeau government have drawn swords against each other on the issue of the LGBTQ+ community. Earlier, in July, many Muslim outfits staged protests where they not only attacked gender ideology but also directly criticised Trudeau for presiding over a woke agenda that they strongly reject. ‘Fuck Trudeau’ flags were all over the place at these parents’ protests.
In one interaction, a Muslim individual asked Trudeau saying, “I ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, please protect our culture, our belief, the sin that you are doing to them.”
However, Trudeau has deployed similar tactics against Muslims that he used against the Freedom Convoy in January 2022. Blaming far-rights groups in the US for “disinformation” against the LGBTQ+ community and against his government among the Muslim community, he insinuated that the protesters are gullible and misguided.
Challenges within the party are brewing for Trudeau
In the 2015 election victory for the Liberal party, young voters and Muslims played a predominant role but recent surveys have shown a tectonic shift in these voting blocs.
Resultantly, while earlier polls noted that conservatives have edged past the Liberal party, they still predicted that the latter could form a minority government in future elections. But things have changed dramatically. Support has swelled for the Conservative party in both Ontario and Atlantic Canada such that the most likely outcome in any future election would be a Conservative majority, National Post asserted.
As per the latest projections from the website 338Canada, if elections are held in the near future, the Tories would take a majority of 179 seats against just 103 seats for the Liberals and 21 for the NDP.
In this background, the Liberal party held a three-day meeting in London, Ontario to address the glaring challenges the Trudeau government is facing currently including high inflation and the rising cost of living.
Regarding these domestic issues, Trudeau said, “There is grumbling across the country. … the cost of living is causing enormous difficulties.”
On the issue of the meeting of the Liberal caucus, he said that he and fellow legislators would be having frank conversations about how best to address the government’s challenges.
While speaking to CBC, many Liberal members of Parliament before going into the national caucus said that they’re facing blowback from voters at the doorsteps. They added that they hope the prime minister and his inner circle listen to their concerns before it’s too late.
Before the meeting, several MPs told CBC News that they don’t feel the prime minister listens to their views or solicits their advice.
On the issue of confidentiality, more than a dozen MPs said that they don’t believe the government’s current communication strategy is working. They said that they would urge PM Trudeau to offer a fresh plan to Canadians on the top issues of the day on which the government is performing badly.
According to local Canadian media reports, there is churn within the liberal party regarding the sliding popularity of both Trudeau and his government.
Regional Liberal caucuses have asked David Coletto, chair and CEO of Abacus Data, to give independent presentations about how their party is polling, CBC reported.
According to the CBC report, Coletto said he’s telling MPs that if an election were called today, the Liberals probably would lose. He said, “Their reaction to that isn’t great.”
He added that the main drivers of the polling trend are angst caused by the cost of living, record-high inflation, and rising interest rates.
With his back to the wall, domestic issues going haywire, and fear of his party leaders breaking ranks, Trudeau could only conjure the idea of afflicting more pain on the country, though at the global stage, to momentarily divert attention from his misgovernance. And even in the case of his unceremonious ouster by his own leaders, he has laid down a path from where he could be projected as a martyr of foreign conspiracy, putting him in league of Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan.
