An uphill drive awaits Trudeau

If Justin Trudeau’s two-year-old government were a sports car, we’d say tow that little baby into the nearest garage for a tune-up.

It ran smoothly for its first 18 months on the road — lots of zip, speed and almost always humming away in the right direction.

In the last half year, however, a series of often self-inflicted collisions have left it dented, struggling and prone to stalls.

Of course, this Liberal government — which was elected exactly two years ago today — isn’t a car. It still needs that tune-up.

Have no doubt that, on this anniversary, the prime minister can fairly point to important Liberal achievements that are making life better in Canada. Overall, his government’s record is positive. Its child tax credit lifted an estimated 300,000 children out of poverty.

The planned deficits that seemed so audacious in the last election campaign revved up our sluggish, post-recession economy.

With their carbon pricing plan, the Liberals have done more to fight climate change than any federal government before them.

They also manoeuvred treacherous paths to reach a national health-care funding agreement with the provinces and introduced a sane, intelligent law on assisted dying.

Throughout it all, they showed younger, more congenial and inclusive faces to Canadians than Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

But whether it’s a car or a government, after two years of wear and tear, things break down.

The solemn campaign promise for electoral reform was dumped by the roadside.

The journeys to reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples, meaningful tax reform and a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement have been bumpier than the Liberals imagined — and lots of bumps remain. This government has always been rich in promising ideas. Increasingly, their problem is delivery. Between now and the next election in the fall of 2018, they will be judged by what they can build with their fine blueprints.

On the economic front, the Liberals must either find a way to salvage NAFTA or map a new course for our export-dependent economy.

The Liberals have approved a pipeline connecting Alberta’s oilfields to the Pacific shores. Now they need to ensure it gets built.

Failure to do so will have severe economic consequences, exacerbate regional tensions and undermine support for Trudeau’s carbon-tax plan in the West.

Having raised expectations for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, the government has to come through with meaningful change.

For a start, it should overhaul the inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal women. Listen to the grieving native families for whom it was created and help them heal.

Then there’s cannabis. In the interest of public safety and fighting organized crime, Ottawa has to get the all details right when it legalizes the recreational use of this drug. And that tax-reform monkey still clings to Liberal backs. On their second anniversary, it seems, the Liberals have plateaued.

Whether they drive onward and upward from here or reverse down the hill depends more than anything else on the driver and his passengers in the big, red Liberal machine.