Which description is "Tru" of Canada's outgoing prime minister?

Conflicting editorials in two Canadian newspapers

Canada will soon have a new prime minister. The next step in that process took place on Sunday when the country’s Liberal Party voted for Mark Carney to replace current prime minister Justin Trudeau as the leader of that party. With that vote, Carney will become prime minister, a move that will become official in just a few days, until a general election takes place later this year.

As Trudeau prepares to leave, an assessment of his record is taking place in Canada. And the media are most definitely offering their opinions. Over the past 24 hours, one scathing and one balanced conclusion has been drawn by two columnists from two different media agencies and working in decidedly different parts of the country.

A columnist for the Calgary Herald is all too happy to see Trudeau head into the next phase of his professional life. Rick Bell’s editorial is exemplified by this excerpt":

The out-of-control immigration, the inaction on the slap-in-the-face inflation hitting us after COVID.

The cost of housing for so many, the crime and social disorder, the carbon tax, a federal government who once again often treated Alberta badly, the scandals.

Do you think the country as a whole is in better shape now than 10 years ago?

If you said no, you’d have a whole lot of people with you.

Bell concluded his blasting of Trudeau by stating:

In the end one thing is certain, speaking truth to power.

Many of us will not miss the prime minister.

Remember, Bell is writing from Alberta, where Trudeau and almost every left-of-center politician will struggle to find a favorable audience. At the risk of being flippant, Bell was preaching to the choir in his negative review of Trudeau. Of course, if Trudeau is in Ontario, the situation is different. A more liberal attitude exists throughout that province, and perhaps is most notable in Canada’s largest city, Toronto.

And that means appreciation for Trudeau is more likely to be accepted there. One columnist had that in mind.

Patrick Doyle, in an editorial picked up by the Toronto Star, acknowledges that anyone who served as prime minister for almost 10 years, as Trudeau will before he soon exits, will have a mixed record. But

when this country needed leadership during times of trauma, Trudeau was there. He steered the country through our first challenge with the chaos of Donald Trump and he led us through a pandemic in which this country lost comparatively fewer lives per capita than most G7 nations, particularly our neighbours to the south. He acted quickly and boldly to keep individuals and businesses afloat. When resentment over vaccine mandates exploded with the so-called Freedom Convoy, Trudeau acted decisively to end the occupation, although his words often inflamed and divided and there are conflicting views (and judgments) as to whether he was right to invoke the Emergencies Act.

So, which is “Tru” of Canada’s current, but soon to be former, prime minister? Is it more appropriate to consider him an out-of-control lefty who dismissed significant pockets of the country? Or should a conclusion that offers more complexity and includes plenty of encomium be delivered?

You tell me.