Looking for a better kind of politician

Opinion

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This article was published 09/01/2025 (272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Finally. With a long overdue news conference on Monday, Canada’s prime minister announced his resignation, proroguing parliament until March and allowing his party to select a new leader.

Justin Trudeau looked beaten outside the cottage he and his family have called home since 2015. The sunny days of the handsome heir apparent to a Canadian political dynasty are now long past.

Trudeau is no longer a wunderkind. He has taken his party to some of the worst polling numbers in modern polling history. He’s lost his credibility. He’s lost his youth. He’s lost his marriage.

Given these times of increasingly polarizing rhetoric between political opponents, perhaps it’s not surprising that few individuals stepped forward to thank Trudeau for the work he did do as the Liberal leader. It felt unbelievably cruel, though some will say it’s just politics while others will say the accolades will come once an election is over.

Still, the body isn’t even cold and his political opponents are already in campaign mode. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stated within minutes of the resignation: “Canadians desperate to turn the page on this dark chapter in our history might be relieved today that Justin Trudeau is finally leaving.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in his official statement also piled on, writing: “Justin Trudeau’s Liberals let down Canadians.” Both leaders were quick to point out that whoever takes over as the next leader will also be tarnished by their affiliation with Trudeau.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump immediately went on the attack, claiming that Trudeau resigned because “the United States can no longer suffer the massive trade deficits and subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat.” He also suggested that Canada should become the 51st state.

Only U.S. President Joe Biden had positive words to say about the prime minister, suggesting Tuesday that the world is a better place because of Trudeau.

“Over the last decade, Prime Minister Trudeau has led with commitment, optimism, and strategic vision,” Biden said in a written statement.

“The U.S.-Canada alliance is stronger because of him. The American and Canadian people are safer because of him. And the world is better off because of him,” wrote the president.

On the same day that Biden wrote his appreciation for Trudeau, former president Jimmy Carter arrived at the U.S. Capitol Building ahead of his state funeral today. Carter died in his family home in Plains, Ga., at the age of 100 on Dec. 29.

Carter could understand a thing or two about political losses. He was elected in 1977, a virtual unknown peanut farmer, narrowly beating Republican Gerald Ford. Like Trudeau, Carter also faced economic pressures domestically and double-digit inflation and gasoline lines coupled with a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran led to his drop in popularity. He was defeated by Ronald Reagan, after eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980.

Carter remained connected to issues of democracy after his loss, founding the Carter Presidential Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., in 1982. Carter along with his wife also worked with Habitat for Humanity International building homes, including some in Winnipeg for those who could not otherwise afford one.

In a 2022 New York Times op-ed, Carter wrote about his concerns about the future of democracy following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In it, the former president suggested that for democracy to endure, leaders and candidates must “uphold the ideals of freedom and adhere to high standards of conduct.” He wrote further that this would mean that people must find ways to “re-engage across the divide, respectfully and constructively, by holding civil conversations with family, friends and co-workers and standing up collectively to the forces dividing us.”

Wise words from a leader who became much more than just a one-time president, going on to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, viewed by many as a beloved humanitarian, philanthropist and true Christian.

In a world full of politicians like Poilievre, Singh or Trump, who used the resignation of a flawed leader to kick him while he’s down, let’s find a Carter instead. One who believed that politicians who “seek to win by any means” and those who are “being persuaded to think and act likewise” are “threatening to collapse the foundations of our security and democracy with breathtaking speed.”

In other words, let’s elect a politician for prime minister who would take 10 minutes out of a campaign to thank his or her opponent for his sacrifices instead of trying to score points with the electorate in a media scrum.

Shannon Sampert is a political scientist and a lecturer at RRC Polytech. She was the politics and perspectives editor at the Free Press from 2014-17.

shannon@mediadiva.ca