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The Trudeau Formula: Seduction and Betrayal in an Age of Discontent
After a decade of Stephen Harper, the arrival of Justin Trudeau felt like a relief.
But as Canadians reckon with the gulf between the dazzling promise of Trudeau’s election and the grim reality of his government, journalist Martin Lukacs makes the case that “real change” was never on the table.
Drawing on investigative research and first-hand reporting, he reveals that behind the new wave of Trudeaumania was a slick status-quo political machine, backed by a cast of corporate elites and lobbyists who expected a pay-off from Liberal rule in Ottawa.
Lukacs exposes a climate plan hatched in collaboration with Big Oil, the arming of a bloody Saudi war in Yemen, a reconciliation industry that has masked ongoing theft of Indigenous lands, and the sell-off of public infrastructure to private profiteers—a re-branded continuation, not a break, from Harper's legacy.
Trudeau's much hyped new politics, Lukacs argues, was in fact an Instagram-era spin on an old Liberal approach: playing to people’s desire for far-reaching change in order to ward off a backlash against the Canadian elite.
But as the Trudeau formula unravels, Lukacs warns that right-wing scapegoating politicians are misdirecting this growing discontent with the established order. The only way to defeat the rise of an ugly right—and fulfill the hopes betrayed by Justin Trudeau—is an unapologetically bold response to inequality, racism, and climate breakdown.
In this election year and beyond, Lukacs argues it’s time that Canada’s progressive majority abandon the idea of saviours and renew the task of collectively winning the world we need.
But as Canadians reckon with the gulf between the dazzling promise of Trudeau’s election and the grim reality of his government, journalist Martin Lukacs makes the case that “real change” was never on the table.
Drawing on investigative research and first-hand reporting, he reveals that behind the new wave of Trudeaumania was a slick status-quo political machine, backed by a cast of corporate elites and lobbyists who expected a pay-off from Liberal rule in Ottawa.
Lukacs exposes a climate plan hatched in collaboration with Big Oil, the arming of a bloody Saudi war in Yemen, a reconciliation industry that has masked ongoing theft of Indigenous lands, and the sell-off of public infrastructure to private profiteers—a re-branded continuation, not a break, from Harper's legacy.
Trudeau's much hyped new politics, Lukacs argues, was in fact an Instagram-era spin on an old Liberal approach: playing to people’s desire for far-reaching change in order to ward off a backlash against the Canadian elite.
But as the Trudeau formula unravels, Lukacs warns that right-wing scapegoating politicians are misdirecting this growing discontent with the established order. The only way to defeat the rise of an ugly right—and fulfill the hopes betrayed by Justin Trudeau—is an unapologetically bold response to inequality, racism, and climate breakdown.
In this election year and beyond, Lukacs argues it’s time that Canada’s progressive majority abandon the idea of saviours and renew the task of collectively winning the world we need.
- GenresNonfictionCanadaPolitics
280 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2020
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204 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 30, 2019
Martin Lukacs, writing for The Guardian, has established himself as a can't-miss left-wing journalist who excels at covering politics through a social movement lens. He brings his considerable analytical skills and incisive commentary to The Trudeau Formula, which offers a handy reference for the many progressive promises of Canada's current governing party and of their actual governing record, which falls short of said promises by every measure. More than this, though, Lukacs offers some detailed historical analysis that highlights how Trudeau is merely the pinnacle of the neoliberal consensus that has dominated Canadian politics for decades, and in particular of the Liberal Party's approach of advancing neoliberal interests by tapping into - and thus in many ways redirecting - the very real and widespread progressive impulse of the Canadian electorate.
Readers who play close attention to Canadian politics won't find the content surprising, but Lukacs' coverage is filled with insightful anecdotes from behind-the-scenes that add a lot to what we see covered in the media. Lukacs is an investigative journalist but has also been invested in political and coalition-based organizing in his own right, having been one of the organizers behind the Leap Manifesto. He thus has no shortage of contacts to draw on to provide incisive commentary.
For those who don't pay as close attention to politics, I suspect this book will be full of 'Aha!' moments, illustrating clearly how and why political rhetoric in this country is often so mis-aligned with how it is actually governed. In short, it's not a mistake - it's designed that way.
As Naomi Klein's blurb on the cover notes, if people want to understand the "inner logic" of the Trudeau years, there's no better source than Lukacs' thoroughly-researched, engagingly-written book.
Readers who play close attention to Canadian politics won't find the content surprising, but Lukacs' coverage is filled with insightful anecdotes from behind-the-scenes that add a lot to what we see covered in the media. Lukacs is an investigative journalist but has also been invested in political and coalition-based organizing in his own right, having been one of the organizers behind the Leap Manifesto. He thus has no shortage of contacts to draw on to provide incisive commentary.
For those who don't pay as close attention to politics, I suspect this book will be full of 'Aha!' moments, illustrating clearly how and why political rhetoric in this country is often so mis-aligned with how it is actually governed. In short, it's not a mistake - it's designed that way.
As Naomi Klein's blurb on the cover notes, if people want to understand the "inner logic" of the Trudeau years, there's no better source than Lukacs' thoroughly-researched, engagingly-written book.
October 26, 2019
A meticulously researched and powerfully written piece of investigative journalism.
If you've been puzzled by the gap between the promise of the federal Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau and its track-record in the real world, be puzzled no longer. That gap is strategic -- an attempt to dip into the pool of voters who might otherwise support the Green Party or the NDP.
But this isn't just a book for political enthusiasts. It's a book for every Canadian citizen who has wondered if things are actually getting worse and harder for everyday people or if they're just imagining that things are harder. (Spoiler alert: it's not your imagination. As Lukacs points out in the introduction to his book, "Half of those who identify as working class today say they were middle class ten years ago--the bottom has dropped out from under them.")
More importantly, it's also a book that delivers solutions -- and not just pie-in-the-sky solutions: solutions that are both urgently needed and actually achievable, including a Green New Deal. As Lukacs explains: "The evident appetite for an epic transition off fossil fuels to a more prosperous and humane society was confirmed again in a poll, which showed that 60 percent of Canadians supported a Green New Deal, including 50 percent of Albertans--with that number jumping to 66 percent when the plan was paid for by increased taxation on corporations and the wealthy." So ultimately it's a hope-filled book: a book that tells you that it's okay to dream big because, at the end of the the day, those dreams are actually a whole lot more achievable than you might think.
If you've been puzzled by the gap between the promise of the federal Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau and its track-record in the real world, be puzzled no longer. That gap is strategic -- an attempt to dip into the pool of voters who might otherwise support the Green Party or the NDP.
But this isn't just a book for political enthusiasts. It's a book for every Canadian citizen who has wondered if things are actually getting worse and harder for everyday people or if they're just imagining that things are harder. (Spoiler alert: it's not your imagination. As Lukacs points out in the introduction to his book, "Half of those who identify as working class today say they were middle class ten years ago--the bottom has dropped out from under them.")
More importantly, it's also a book that delivers solutions -- and not just pie-in-the-sky solutions: solutions that are both urgently needed and actually achievable, including a Green New Deal. As Lukacs explains: "The evident appetite for an epic transition off fossil fuels to a more prosperous and humane society was confirmed again in a poll, which showed that 60 percent of Canadians supported a Green New Deal, including 50 percent of Albertans--with that number jumping to 66 percent when the plan was paid for by increased taxation on corporations and the wealthy." So ultimately it's a hope-filled book: a book that tells you that it's okay to dream big because, at the end of the the day, those dreams are actually a whole lot more achievable than you might think.
December 6, 2021
The Trudeau formula is a fairly well put together book on the Trudeau administration.
As a Canadian I hear a lot of dislike for Trudeau and his party here in Canada on topics of gun reforms,immigration,economic stability and social reforms.
Trudeau has definitely made mistakes but what prime minister hasn’t? This book definitely shines on those mistakes and highlights his rise and current state of affairs in parliament. I felt this book was not intended to hurt Trudeau or discredit his party in anyway but to point out the mistakes the liberals have made and to improve on a better road for tomorrow.
This book is a great way to explore current Canadian politics and even if you like or do not like Trudeau and the liberals this book we’ll definitely give you a much more educated approach on the subject!
As a Canadian I hear a lot of dislike for Trudeau and his party here in Canada on topics of gun reforms,immigration,economic stability and social reforms.
Trudeau has definitely made mistakes but what prime minister hasn’t? This book definitely shines on those mistakes and highlights his rise and current state of affairs in parliament. I felt this book was not intended to hurt Trudeau or discredit his party in anyway but to point out the mistakes the liberals have made and to improve on a better road for tomorrow.
This book is a great way to explore current Canadian politics and even if you like or do not like Trudeau and the liberals this book we’ll definitely give you a much more educated approach on the subject!
December 9, 2019
Nothing will surprise the avid newsreader here. Lukacs hits the highlights of Trudeau's neoliberal reconfigured Liberal leadership and strings along a set of domestic and international issues on which the Liberals - true to historical form - govern with a patronizing and corporate-prioritising hand. That said, it's all pretty superficial stuff, with as much detail as you would expect from longform journalism. There are cutting passages on the NDP as well, especially in their turn toward "modernization" helmed by Jack Layton and steered into the ground by Thomas Mulcair. Overall, though, there isn't too much to chew on and the writing becomes much too frequently moralistic rather than analytical, investigative, historical, or theoretical - this cedes centre stage to the naff-hypocrisy of the Liberal party as Lukacs presents them, and renders the narrative of the book in a purely reactionary role. I would have to concede that I was left frustrated by Lukacs rather than informed or moved.
February 3, 2023
This was super super good! 5/5 highly recommend!
December 21, 2019
Well written, informative, fascinating. These are words I never thought I would use to describe a book about Canadian politics.
Coming from the left, the author offers a substantive critique of Liberal party politics that have dominated the political landscape for the past 40 years.
I sincerely recommend this book, as the ending gives us a sense of hope that things can change and we can strive for something better.
Coming from the left, the author offers a substantive critique of Liberal party politics that have dominated the political landscape for the past 40 years.
I sincerely recommend this book, as the ending gives us a sense of hope that things can change and we can strive for something better.
January 10, 2020
Lukacs does an amazing job critically analyzing the Federal Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau's branding as a "progressive" leader. I also appreciate his criticisms of the NDP and his insights on where the Canadian Left needs to go from here.
November 20, 2020
I thought of Trudeau Jr as a floppy haired poster boy for good childhood dental care, but he's worse. He's a basic Eastern Canadian Liberal, newish name, same franchise.
October 21, 2021
A frank and well-informed description of what life is really like for those of us trying to live under the Trudeau government in the early 2020s. Most of us, it is true, have at least some inkling of the fact that Trudeau himself has a great deal of trouble lying straight in bed (sorry, Aussie slang, can't help it). The man is an absolute godsend to an elite class that momentarily lost its way at the end of the Harper years. Yet, as Lukacs explains, there was to be no NDP revival, no Leap manifesto per se, only pretty boy Trudeau, groomed and favoured by a corporate body politic that could not, ultimately, believe their luck. Martin Lukacs does a much better job of explaining all this, than I. If I have one small complaint, it is that the book does not have a strong ending and its failure to tie the Liberal ascendancy to the foolish NDP decline is something I felt was missing.
But this is a strong text, full of well-written exposés of a federal Liberal Party exercising power, as always, on behalf of the privileged 1% or so of Canadians, while virtually pissing on the citizens of the world at the same time.
But this is a strong text, full of well-written exposés of a federal Liberal Party exercising power, as always, on behalf of the privileged 1% or so of Canadians, while virtually pissing on the citizens of the world at the same time.
November 21, 2024
The wilde Amazone
One of the most eye-opening books I have ever read
Not only does this go into depth into Trudeau's corrupt neo-liberal policies, it gives insight into Canada's modern political history that really explain how the country has come to this point of socio-economic turmoil.
Wais A.
...............
Justin Trudeau and the Politics of Deception
This is a devastating analysis of how the Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau continues to be even more popular with Corporate Canada - to the detriment of most Canadians - than were the Harper Conservatives.
On every issue that is important to Canadians, pharmacare, childcare, climate change, precarious work and others, the Liberal Party agenda under Trudeau is closely aligned with the interests of the rich and powerful.
When will Canadians ever learn?
Health Professor
November 21, 2024
There has been a mismatch between the promises made to voters as heard during elections in front of the cameras to seduce them into voting for Mr. Trudeau and the promises quietly made at cash-for -access events related to the Business Council, the oil industry, the arms industry and others as those seem to be the ones he chose to keep as detailed in this book. What we saw and heard openly is not what actually quietly happened on many issues which does feel like a betrayal of trust.
Liberal votes were cast but in many cases the outcomes where what one would expect from Conservatives as they protected and rewarded big business, including the fossil fuel industry.
The Liberals need to do better and come through for Canadians even if it means taking a risk and letting down the corporations who give them money.
Liberal votes were cast but in many cases the outcomes where what one would expect from Conservatives as they protected and rewarded big business, including the fossil fuel industry.
The Liberals need to do better and come through for Canadians even if it means taking a risk and letting down the corporations who give them money.
March 31, 2024
Exceptionally well written Canadian politico. Lukacs knows his stuff and does important research and nicely toes together the real life people both behind and in front of the political arena curtain, and the policies they implement. This book should have done much better than it has considering how much is covered and how strong the writing is by bringing in a lot of interesting first person antidotal stories while staying focused on the impacts and consequences of Liberal government in power for the last decade. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews