EDITORIAL: Lessons for Anthony Albanese in Justin Trudeau’s downfall

Justin Trudeau was finished long before Donald Trump sealed his fate by announcing via social media his intentions to impose a punishing 25 per cent tariff on all imports into the US from Canada and Mexico.

Yet it’s the president-elect who will get the blame — or the credit, depending on your politics — for sending the Canadian Prime Minister tumbling over the precipice of popular opinion.

Truthfully though, Mr Trudeau’s gloss had long worn off among Canadian voters.

Once the golden boy of progressive politics, the telegenic Mr Trudeau had been trailing dismally behind Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre in the polls for some time.

His resignation, after nine years in office and having lost the support of his Deputy Prime Minister and finance minster Chrystia Freeland, felt inevitable when it finally did arrive on Tuesday Australian time.

Mr Trump’s pronouncement certainly didn’t help. Nor did his follow up trolling campaign in which he mocked the Prime Minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau” and referred to Canada as the US’s “51st state”.

It shows that long histories of friendship between nations are easily cast aside by Mr Trump.

With Mr Trump’s second inauguration looming just weeks away, that’s a message Anthony Albanese has no doubt taken on board.

Mr Albanese says he and the incoming president have had “positive” discussions regarding exempting Australia from potential tariffs, but that will count for little if the mercurial Mr Trump sees an advantage in doing otherwise.

There are other pertinent warnings from Mr Trudeau’s fall that Mr Albanese should take note of, as he begins the first week of his unofficial re-election campaign.

Mr Trudeau, like the leaders of other incumbent governments to have faced elections in the past year, attracted the ire of voters discontented with fast-rising cost of living.

Inflation has now moderated to 2 per cent in Canada, in the middle of the nation’s central bank’s target range. But with grocery prices up 20 per cent since 2021, wages haven’t caught up, meaning Canadians are still worse off.

Surging immigration has caused significant angst among Canadian voters and contributed towards the discontent with Mr Trudeau’s leadership.

His announcement in October that Canada would slash its annual intake of new permanent migrants by 21 per cent — from 500,000 to 395,000 — wasn’t enough to save him. That policy shift came with an admission from Mr Trudeau that his government “didn’t get the balance quite right” on immigration.

The influx of new migrants to Canada, brought in to address pandemic-era skills shortages, were blamed for skyrocketing house prices, putting the dream of homeownership out of reach for many young Canadians.

It’s a familiar story to Australians.

Mr Albanese will be hoping that his own version has a happier ending.