Young Canadians react to Trudeau’s resignation
As Justin Trudeau’s decade-long leadership ends, University of Regina students share their thoughts.
Jackson Rennebohm, News Writer
On March 9, the Liberal Party chose a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, ending a near decade-long era of his leadership in Canadian politics. After a landslide win, former governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney is now prime minister-designate.
For Canadians in their early twenties or younger, Trudeau and the Liberals are the only government they have known since childhood. With an imminent federal election,The Carillon asked University of Regina students about the country’s future and Trudeau’s resignation. “It actually excites me a lot,” said Noah, a business student, who was fundraising on campus for local charity Carmichael Outreach. “[Trudeau has] been in office for a while, obviously, and I think having a new perspective and a new leader is actually a really good thing.”
“The world has changed. Canada’s changed a lot,” Noah continued. “I think having a new face can help to lead Canada forward and, hopefully, to continue to get better.”
“I found [Trudeau’s] policies and general choices as Prime Minister to be a bit of a mixed bag,” expressed Ethan, who studies environmental engineering. “So, I’m not super against his resignation.”
Contrasting Noah and Ethan’s thoughts, other students expressed ambivalence toward the coming change in leadership.“To be totally honest, I don’t really care that much who’s in charge,” stated Bernice, a student in the education program. “I feel like the problem with politics and voting is that there’s usually a list of bad options, and you’re forced to choose the least-worst option, instead of actually having a good hope for the future.”
“I think that lots of candidates are addressing lots of the issues,” Bernice. “But none of them are really addressing them all from a perspective where I would feel comfortable voting for somebody and saying that is the best option.”
Bernice is far from being the only young Canadian feeling discouraged about politics. According to estimates made by Elections Canada, the 18- to 24-year-old voter group had the lowest turnout percentage of all age groups in the 2019 general election, at only 53.9 per cent.
Unanimously, students interviewed agreed that the largest issue the next federal government needs to address is the inflated cost of living.
“I think our economy and state of business in Canada is worse, and the state of Canadian pocketbooks are worse [after Trudeau]. Hopefully that can change in the next election, when we have a new government,” stated Noah., the business student.
Now that Justin Trudeau’s nine years of governance are behind us, many of us are left wondering how his legacy as Prime Minister will be remembered by the current and future generations of Canadian youth.
“I think people generally view him as sort of a silly guy who didn’t really know what he was doing, and made lots of mistakes,” said the education student Bernice. “And so, I think people might almost look back mockingly. Like, oh, this guy was silly, and he did not know what he was talking about, and he did not know what he was doing — those kinds of thoughts.”
“Well, personally, I don’t have the highest regard for Justin Trudeau’s prime ministership,” business student Noah told the Carillon. “I think Canada could be in a great position on the global scale, and Canadians could be a lot better off than we are right now.”
“I have seen people like him, I have seen people hate him, ” stated Ethan. “So I would imagine his legacy, moving forward, will be mixed opinion-wise. But how will that affect politics going forward, and the Liberal Party going forward? We can only guess.”
