Why Trudeau gets an Aafter Year 1

Justin Trudeau has enjoyed one of the longest political honeymoons in recent Canadian history.

Initially, the love affair between the Liberal prime minister and voters was expected to last just 100 days, but with Trudeau preparing to mark on Oct. 19 the first anniversary of the Liberals’ 2015 election victory, it’s clear the honeymoon is still going strong.

And as hard as it is for his detractors to concede, besides keeping his personal popularity in the stratosphere, Trudeau has performed surprisingly well since taking power when it comes to the difficult job of actually governing and implementing his campaign promises.

That’s why Trudeau rates an overall grade of A- after Year 1.

That grade is based several factors, including his growing role on the world stage, his ability to make tough decisions, the strength of his cabinet, the number of campaign promises implemented and the relatively gaffe-free record of his youthful caucus.

The only reason Trudeau doesn’t warrant a straight A is that he hasn’t acted as quickly on some key election promises, such as legalizing marijuana, as he might have over the first 12 months.

Indeed, Canadians are quite happy with how well Trudeau has done since the 2015 election night. His latest personal approval ratings are well over 50 per cent and his Liberal Party sits even higher in national polls than it did on election day.

True, both the Tories and NDP are seeking new leaders, but still most ruling parties start to lose support, not gain it, once they take power and have to make often unpopular decisions.

During the 2015 election, the Liberals made 219 promises, as recorded by TrudeauMetre.ca, a website launched by a Calgary-based developer who describes it as non-partisan.

To date, 34 of those promises have been achieved, 64 are in progress, 95 have not yet been started and 26 have been broken.

The website categorizes the promises by themes, including culture, economy, environment, government, immigration, indigenous peoples and security.

When it comes to key issues, though, Trudeau earns top marks.

As promised, he has introduced a wide range of initiatives, including a new Canada Child Benefit as well as a middle-class tax cut. He has also ended combat activities in Iraq, moved to bring thousands of Syrian refugees to Canada and restored the Old Age Security limit to 65 after the Harper government launched a plan to raise the limit for drawing the seniors benefit from age 65 to 67.

On relations with the United States, he has repaired the ties with the Obama White House, a relationship fractured during the Stephen Harper years.

On relations with the provinces and major cities, Trudeau has met often with premiers and mayors on issues such as transit and affordable housing, something Harper blatantly refused to do.

On indigenous women, he has launched a national public inquiry on murdered and missing women, another thing Harper refused to do, although Trudeau took until August to do so and the inquiry won’t report its finding until December, 2018.

On the environment, he has introduced a carbon tax aimed at lowering greenhouse emissions that contribute to climate change. Environmentalists argue Trudeau hasn’t gone far enough, but he is moving in the right direction.

On infrastructure spending, Trudeau is sticking with his promise to boost federal funds for projects such as roads and sewers even though it means his government may fail to reach a deficitfree budget by 2019 as he originally pledged.

Among the pledges the Liberals have not yet delivered on are to legalize marijuana, which Trudeau says will have to wait until the spring of 2017, to maintain defence spending at levels set by the Harper government, to update the federal Access to Information Act and to reduce small business taxes to nine per cent.

In Year 2, Trudeau will be hardpressed to match this year’s rating. That’s because he will face a series of potentially unpopular decisions, from federal funding on a new health accord with the provinces to approving or rejecting two major pipeline projects and dealing with increasingly vocal opposition to immigration targets.

Eventually, Trudeau’s rating will slip as the burden of governing slowly takes its toll and the hopes and dreams of “sunny ways” are pushed aside by unforeseen economic and political events.

But for Year 1 at least, he’s earned his grade. Bob Hepburn’s column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.ca