Trudeau vows policy departures in post-Harper Canada
TORONTO (AP) — With a host of policies that differ dramatically from his predecessor, Justin Trudeau’s victory over the most conservative leader in Canada’s history will reverberate beyond the country’s borders.
The first major shift came Tuesday when Trudeau announced he had spoken with US President Barack Obama and told him he will remove Canada’s six fighter jets from the US-led bombing campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Among the other areas in which Trudeau differs from Conservative Stephen Harper: climate change, immigration and whether relations with the US should hinge on the future of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
Speaking at a rally in Ottawa, the 43-year-old Trudeau — son of one of the country’s most dynamic politicians — underlined the sea change.
”I want to say this to this country’s friends around the world: many of you have worried that Canada has lost its compassionate and constructive voice in the world over the past 10 years. Well, I have a simple message for you on behalf of 35 million Canadians. We’re back,” he declared.
With Trudeau’s decisive victory on Monday, Canadian voters reclaimed their country’s liberal identity, giving the new prime minister a commanding majority in a parliament that will allow him to govern without relying on other parties.
That means change in Canadian policies on a broad spectrum of issues.
”Trudeau will return Canada to its traditional approach in foreign affairs which is characteristic of every single government but Harper’s,” said Robert Bothwell, a professor at the University of Toronto.
“Canada will go back to multilateralism, back to strong support for the United Nations.”
There will be a “new way for Canada to be on the world stage,” agreed Liberal lawmaker Marc Garneau, who won reelection Monday.
The son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who swept to office in 1968 on a wave of support dubbed “Trudeaumania” and governed for most of the next two decades, the younger Trudeau channels the star power — if not quite the political heft — of his father.