Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation this week, ending nine years in power.
Several domestic policies are likely to be remembered as key parts of Trudeau’s legacy. These include cannabis legalization, medical assistance in dying, a national carbon tax, immigration and child care.
Here’s a look back at the Trudeau government’s major policy moves, and a look forward at how they are likely to be judged by history.
Cannabis legalization
In the 2015 election campaign, the youthful Trudeau made cannabis decriminalization one of his signature pledges. In 2018, the government made good on its promise, legalizing cannabis for recreational use.
Health Canada’s 2024 annual cannabis survey suggests legalization has achieved many of policymakers’ aims. The number of users purchasing cannabis through legal channels stands at 72 per cent today, stamping out a large portion of the illegal market.
Meanwhile, the number of youth using cannabis has remained stable, challenging critics’ contention that legalization would drive an increase.
Public health campaigns have increased awareness of cannabis’ risks to physical health, such as effects on lung health and brain development. The public is also increasingly aware of the risks of driving while high.
However, there is still work to be done. The survey shows a majority of users are unaware that regular cannabis use increases the risk of developing mental health disorders. Cannabis use was also the most significant driver of hospitalizations among young people in 2022. And its effects on physical health are not as well-understood as they ought to be.
To its credit, the government also simplified the process for Canadians with criminal records for cannabis possession to apply to have these records set aside. While this process has had less uptake than anticipated, it is positive that the government is enabling cannabis users to have their slates wiped clean.
Score: Success.
MAID
Another first-term policy of the Trudeau government was the legalization of medical assistance in dying (MAID).
Arguably, the government had no choice but to legalize MAID; the Supreme Court had previously ruled that a prohibition on physician-assisted suicide was unconstitutional.
The government’s initial MAID regime was appropriately cautious. But its subsequent changes have gone too far, making Canada’s MAID regime one of the most permissive in the world.
Its moves to create “Track 2 MAID” — which permits MAID in circumstances where death is not reasonably foreseeable — have led many health-care professionals, bioethicists and rights organizations to raise concerns about vulnerable individuals seeking MAID due to inadequate social supports.
The Trudeau government also planned to expand eligibility to those whose sole condition is mental illness. It postponed those plans following significant opposition, including from Liberal MPs. The date for that expansion is now set for 2027, but may not happen under a different government.
Score: Mixed.
Carbon tax
The Trudeau Liberals implemented a national carbon tax that applies in provinces where a provincial carbon tax does not exist. Trudeau subsequently undermined the tax by offering a carve-out for heating oil in the Atlantic provinces. Now, federal and provincial politicians on the left and right say they would scrap the tax.
The tax therefore looks unlikely to survive a change of government.
Whether it ought to survive is debatable. An analysis by the research organization Canadian Climate Institute indicates the carbon tax has been much less effective at reducing emissions than measures targeting industrial emitters.
Score: Mixed.
Child care
A key policy of the Trudeau government’s second term was getting the provinces to agree to implement subsidized child care.
The program’s aim is to provide “publicly accessible, affordable and high-quality child care” for all children under six. So far, the program has fallen far short of these goals.
With demand for spaces far outstripping supply, many families are unable to access the program. Moreover, working-class workers are least likely to work the 9-5 hours that child-care centres operate, leading some to claim the subsidized program is an upper-class subsidy.
Meanwhile, the governments’ complex and inadequate funding structures have prevented many for-profit child-care operators from participating in the program, while participating operators are considering whether they need to opt out.
Some of these problems might be resolved over time. But the price tag of a $10-a-day, quality program that meets all available demand is estimated to be at least $47 billion a year. This astronomical figure far exceeds what governments have pledged — or can afford — to spend.
Score: Fail.
Immigration
The Trudeau government’s treatment of immigration as a GDP-juicing and wage-suppressing program, with little regard for the impact on housing and health-care availability, may have destroyed a uniquely Canadian consensus for a generation.
A report published by the C.D. Howe Institute in July said Canada went from having a “skilled immigration system that has been the envy of the world for decades [to one that in] the post-pandemic years have seen policy prioritize plugging ‘holes’ in lower-skilled labour markets.” This is not a record any government — particularly one as self-professedly progressive as Trudeau’s Liberals — can be proud of.
The Liberals’ aggressive expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers program may have offered businesses a quick fix in the post-pandemic era. But it was bad for workers — handicapping their bargaining power — and bad for the economy, alleviating pressure to address flagging productivity.
The government’s efforts to increase immigration in this and other categories were also ill-timed and ill-planned: it was foreseeable that a huge population surge would strain an already tight housing market and overburdened health-care system.
If the government wanted to radically increase immigration levels, it ought to have made its case to Canadians for doing so and managed intake more carefully.
Score: Fail.
I think the Pot Legalization was a fail. It could be one of the many contributing factors why Canadian Armed Forces aren’t fit, nor ready for war in the event they are called to serve. And, potential lung damage, schizophrenic-like mental disorders as the users age, and loss of motivation are other good enough reasons for me.
After nine years Trudeau’s legacy appears rather jejeune. Our debt is enormous, our military decimated, our infrastructure remains untouched. Not to mention corruption: SNC Lavalin, the We debacle, and health care broken. In short, it’s a total disaster.