Justin Trudeau tried to put on a jovial face when he appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Monday night. But the prime minister’s pledge to “fight climate change” while “continuing to invest in people” rang hollow with voters at home.
After speaking to a near-empty room at the United Nations General Assembly on Sunday, Trudeau attempted to portray an air of confidence when he chatted with Colbert. This, despite his sagging popularity and polls that suggest the Liberal leader could be guiding his party to historic losses at the hands of Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives when the next election rolls around.
“People are hurting. People are having trouble paying for groceries, paying for rent, filling up the tank,” Trudeau acknowledged, telling Colbert that Canadians are having “a really tough time.”
Before they suffered another byelection blow, losing the Winnipeg riding of Elmwood-Transcona and the Liberal stronghold of LaSalle-Emard-Verdun in Montreal last week, Trudeau seemed to be spoiling for an election fight with Poilievre. During his sitdown with Colbert, the deeply unpopular prime minister acted like he’s barely read a newspaper in the last two years as he tried to downplay his disastrous polling numbers.
“People are frustrated, and the idea that maybe they want an election now is something that my opponents are trying to bank on, because people are taking a lot out on me for understandable reasons. I’ve been here, and I’ve been steering us through all these things, and people are sometimes looking at change,” Trudeau said.
As he promised to “keep fighting,” Trudeau said he “deeply believe(s) in continuing to fight climate change and continuing to invest in people, continuing to be there to support people.”
At one point Colbert referred to Poilievre as “Canada’s Trump.”
“I’m curious why at least some form of nativism or far-right xenophobia might grow in a country even as polite as Canada,” Colbert said. “Why do you think this is getting a foothold even in your country?”
Trudeau didn’t address Colbert trying to draw parallels with the Republican presidential nominee and his own political rival in Ottawa, but acknowledged that Canada is “not some magical place of unicorns and rainbows all the time.”
The Liberal leader, who faces a non-confidence motion in the House of Commons this week by the Conservatives, admitted that Canadians are gripped by a housing crisis. But he glossed over that and spoke about how Canada’s economy is performing well on a “macro” level while also trying to brag about his child care, dental care and pharmacare policies. “We’ve delivered it to 700,000 people across the country and my opponent is gaslighting us and saying, ‘Oh, dental care doesn’t even exist yet,’” he said.
But no matter how he tried to spin it, Trudeau’s message didn’t resonate with viewers back home.
On Reddit, critics picked apart Trudeau’s late-night love-in. “We’ve masked a recession with population growth, have had a decade of no productivity gains, and now unemployment is starting to creep up,” one person wrote. “I know the U.S. has its own set of problems but there is no economic outlook (micro or macro level) where Canada looks even slightly better than the U.S. right now or in the near or middle term future.”
Another detractor said Trudeau’s appearance “was full of excuses.”
“What he didn’t mention is how his government’s policies, such as printing money during the pandemic and imposing a costly carbon tax which have directly contributed to skyrocketing inflation and rising living costs,” they wrote. “While he acknowledges the housing crisis, Trudeau conveniently overlooks the fact that his government’s failure to increase housing supply has worsened the situation, all while immigration policies have added pressure to the housing market.”
On YouTube, where his interview had been watched over 210,000 times, one commentator chided Colbert for trying to blame Trudeau’s unpopularity on “the far right.”
“He’s not losing because of ‘the far right’ he’s losing because he’s awful at his job,” they wrote.
“He has done so much damage and is so disliked here in Canada that he has to go down to the States and do a comedy show with an audience that doesn’t know him in order to receive the adoration he craves,” a second person lectured.
On X, the interview was called “cringey” as the prime minster was lambasted further, with one pundit calling his appearance “campaign propaganda.”
“If I was Pierre, I would be honoured to be compared to Trump,” another person added. “Calling Pierre ‘Canada’s Trump’ and labelling Conservatives as ‘far-right,’ while portraying Trudeau as fighting this imaginary far-right is abhorrent.”
But the polished discussion led a few observers to suggest that Trudeau might have a future on TV when his political life comes to an end.
“Trudeau did well, he does great in these situations,” one supporter wrote.
“I’m calling it right now, when Trudeau retires he moves to LA and is doing TV/media within 2 years,” a second person added.