Canada, when you’re done with Justin Trudeau, send him here

‘Justin Trudeau wants to know who you sleep with!” blared the headline on a Journal de Montreal op-ed piece. Lucky guy, I thought. The Canadian prime minister gets to deal with wack jobs, too.

Then a synapse fired: Justin Trudeau? The fellow with the “Star Wars” socks? How long has he been prime minister anyway? Since the Obama administration, it turns out. Put another way, David Cameron (who he?) was prime minister of Britain when the then 43-year-old Trudeau came to power in 2015. There have been four British PMs since but only one in Canada — Trudeau.

Eight years ago, Trudeau was the Sunshine Superman of Canadian politics. The mediagenic son of a famous prime minister, his name inevitably appeared on lists of “sexiest world leaders.” Vogue magazine once called him “Sexy, feminist, and capable of balancing a baby on one hand,” an Instagrammable campaign trick he has demonstrated more than once.

And yes, he once showed up at parliamentary Question Period dressed as

Clark Kent and pulled open his shirt to reveal a Superman costume underneath.

So from the land of senescent senators (Charles Grassley, Diane Feinstein), superannuated presidents (no further identification necessary), and serially indicted, seditionist former office holders (ditto), I say: Canada, when you are done with him, we have plenty of jobs that need filling.

Shiny things tarnish over time, and so, too, with Trudeau. When he won a comefrom-behind victory in 2015, Trudeau was “wholly unique in Canadian politics,” according to Aaron Wherry, author of “Promise and Peril: Justin Trudeau in Power.” “His charisma almost rivaled that of the Kennedys. His last name was mythic, he was handsome and well spoken, and he loved wading into crowds and shaking hands.”

Eight years provides ample scope for political missteps, and Trudeau has made a few. “He has a surprising ability to make things hard on himself,” Wherry said in an interview. Early in his prime ministership, Trudeau embarked on a tone-deaf vacation on the private island of Aga Khan, a friend of his father’s. (Hilariously, jetsetter John Kerry was there at the same time.) A subsequent investigation accused Trudeau of conflicts of interest, and he apologized.

When photos surfaced, just before the 2019 election, of a youthful Trudeau wearing blackface, “It looked like he was sunk,” Wherry recalled. Then “he stood outside in Winnipeg and took a hundred questions on it — an incredible performance of atonement. He’s at his best when he’s backed himself into a corner, and it’s amazing how often he’s done it.”

Daniel Béland, director of McGill University’s Institute for the Study of Canada, told me that Trudeau’s poll numbers have eroded over time, and that his minority Liberal Party retains power thanks to an alliance with the slightly more left-wing New Democratic Party. “He’s not a Teflon prime minister,” Béland said. “He’s now perceived as a politician like any other. But the opposition isn’t strong enough to surge ahead.”

Trudeau has beaten three successive Conservative Party leaders in three elections in 2015, 2019, and 2021, and there’s no particular reason why he couldn’t beat a fourth. “Canadians aren’t that quick to toss their governments out,” Wherry said. “We tend to elect them and give them a lot of runway.” Justin’s father, Pierre Trudeau, served for a total of 15 years. Justin’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, of the Conservative Party of Canada, served for over nine years.

Both Béland and Wherry speculate that Trudeau won’t have to face the voters again until 2025, rounding out 10 years in office. He will be 53. By then, Canadians will be sick of him, and I repeat — send him down here. We’ve gotten used to much worse, and if that changes by 2025, well, that would be a pleasant surprise.