Say what you like about Justin Trudeau, he is qualified to be prime minister

In the 2015 federal election, the Conservative Party ran an ad saying Justin Trudeau was “just not ready” to be prime minister. A year later, before becoming premier of Ontario, Doug Ford told the press that the newly elected Trudeau was “not qualified” to be prime minister. This was an interesting claim from someone whose experience before taking over Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party and his father’s old seat in the Ontario legislature was losing the race for mayor of Toronto, serving one term in his late brother’s old seat on Toronto city council, a stint managing the suburban label company he inherited, and allegedly selling hash on the mean streets of Etobicoke in the 1980s.

But the question of whether Justin Trudeau is qualified to be prime minister recurs to this day, nearly nine years since the Liberals were first elected to government. A recent online ad by the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative lobby group, features Jordan Peterson, godfather of modern right-wing populism, calling Trudeau “completely and utterly unqualified for the job”. 

An editor with Postmedia earlier this year described Trudeau as “an incompetent celebrity who lacked the credentials to govern.” Other Conservative Party-aligned online media, activists, and former politicians  regularly assert that Trudeau is unqualified, unfit, and unprepared to be prime minister.

Let’s unpack those claims.

When the Liberals won a majority government in 2015, Trudeau had been leader of the Liberal Party for more than two years and a member of Parliament for seven. That was more than twice the parliamentary experience his father, Pierre, had when he became PM in 1968, though the elder Trudeau did serve in Lester B. Pearson’s cabinet before assuming the top job. It was also close to the eight years' experience as an MP that Stephen Harper had before becoming PM.

Justin, notoriously to some, worked as a high school teacher in Vancouver and later for the Liberal Party while on the board of the national youth organization founded by his father’s government. He was 36 when first elected to the House of Commons, and 43 when he became PM (Harper was 46, Pierre Trudeau was 48).

Given all that has happened since, it’s difficult to argue that Justin Trudeau hasn’t gained significant experience. For all their missteps, on issues including carbon pricing, environmental conservation, legalizing cannabis, social policies like the Canada Child Benefit and $10 daycare, LGBTQ rights, diversity and inclusion, medical assistance in dying (MAID), funding for housing and public transportation, truth and reconciliation, feminist foreign policy, and more, the Trudeau Liberal government is the most progressive federal government in Canadian history, though hardly the left-wing regime of Conservative Party rhetoric. 

Trudeau briefly enjoyed a period of collaboration with Liberal and NDP governments in several large provinces, but since 2018-2019, has governed in the face of staunch obstruction from mostly conservative governments. The major exceptions are the Newfoundland Liberal government in power since 2015, and the BC NDP since 2017. Some provinces — notably the United Conservative government in Alberta — have made attacking Justin Trudeau the centrepiece of their approach to government. Little surprise, then, that Canada has made less progress than Canadians would like on issues such as health care, housing, and affordability that require provincial cooperation.

Yet he has also been prime minister during three world historic events. 

Donald Trump unexpectedly took office 14 months after Trudeau and offered a far cry from the anticipated partnership of a Hillary Clinton administration. Trump’s presidency brought a torrent of challenges, including the threatened end of NAFTA, a surge of migrants at the Canadian border, efforts to undermine NATO and militarize the world’s longest undefeated border, and a deluge of fake news, angry rhetoric, and inspiration for domestic right-wing groups and individuals. 

While the Canada-US bilateral relationship has seen fairer weather under the Biden Administration, and would likely remain so under a President Harris, the upcoming U.S. election runs the risk of producing another Trump presidency. Trump’s animosity toward Canada, and Justin Trudeau in particular, may have been inflamed by the PM’s recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with its jibes about Trump-inspired populism. Regardless, Trudeau is one of the few leaders to have endured the first Trump presidency and still be in office now to face the possibility of another.

The second crisis Trudeau led Canada through was the COVID-19 pandemic. Though far from perfect, the Liberal government led the world in securing access to vaccines for its population. This allowed Canadians to become among the most highly vaccinated populations in the world against COVID, providing access to a vital tool against infection, severe illness, and death. 

The Liberals introduced the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and other financial support that enabled millions of households to weather the mandated school and business closures, lost jobs, mass illness and disability, and the biggest global economic shock since the 2009 Great Recession. Average household incomes in Canada actually rose during the pandemic, but the ensuing COVID-related inflation and high interest rates strained household and government budgets across the country. 

Though the national debt is at its highest ever level due to massive pandemic borrowing in 2020-2021, Canada’s credit ratings remain sound, its debt-to-GDP ratio remains among the lowest in the G7, and it continues to have some of the best economic growth among the major developed economies. 

The scars of COVID still visible on Canada’s domestic politics — from vaccine mandates, to freedom-convoy protests, to homeless encampments and the ongoing strains on the public health care system — aren’t reflected in its international image. Indeed, Justin Trudeau has often been more popular abroad than at home.

The third global crisis that has taken place during Trudeau’s tenure is the war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and its many global consequences. In addition to scrambling global energy, agriculture, and arms markets, Russia’s aggression has strengthened the NATO alliance, worsened international cooperation in the Arctic, and increased the risk of direct military conflict between Russia and the United States. 

While its actions have further revealed the dull instruments of international law and the United Nations Security Council as ineffectual, Russia’s war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine have become part of the noisy backdrop of global politics. Canada’s strong diplomatic and military support for Ukraine, valued at over $4.5 billion since early 2022, has become a signature of the Liberals’ foreign policy that sees Canada firmly aligned with its trans-Atlantic allies.

So, after nearly nine years in office, it’s hard for anyone to credibly say that Justin Trudeau doesn’t have the experience to do his job. The 23rd prime minister of Canada leads the longest-serving progressive government in the world and is the longest-serving leader in the G7. For many Canadians that longevity is exactly the problem, but that’s not the same as complaining that Trudeau can’t do the job.

When a new US president takes office in January 2025, whoever wins will be the fourth American leader Trudeau has worked with. During his tenure, Trudeau has sat opposite seven French PMs, six British PMs, five Italian PMs, five New Zealand PMs, four Japanese PMs, and three leaders each from Australia, Brazil, and Mexico. Though the two Liberal minority governments since 2019 have made for a rocky few years, throughout the last decade of global tumult, Canada has been an island of relative political stability compared to many of our peers and other large democracies.

Far from being too inexperienced, Trudeau is already the seventh-longest serving prime minister in Canadian history (right after Stephen Harper), and the most experienced democratic leader in the developed world.

Measuring time in office is not the same as assessing the results of public policy, and people are free to criticize the decisions made by his government. But arguing that Justin Trudeau doesn’t have the experience to lead? 

That’s just nonsense.

Will Greaves is associate professor of international relations at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, where he researches and teaches global politics and security, Canadian foreign policy, and Arctic geopolitics.