I would not lump Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with strongmen like Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, Viktor Orban of Hungary or Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. They exploited the urgent need for government assistance caused by the pandemic to entrench executive power at the expense of personal freedom.
Trudeau’s objectives aren’t that malign and Canadian democracy would not permit an unconstitutional power grab. However, he did his best to avoid parliamentary accountability to an extent almost unprecedented in Canadian history. That it was accompanied by earnest appeals to progressive ideals and the defence of necessity does not detract from how seriously he breached the norms of responsible government and the Westminster tradition, dating back to the first Canadian provinces in 1848.
