Exploring Trudeau's most embarrassing moments and political gaffes

Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation following nearly ten years in his role as Prime Minister of Canada. His announcement didn't come as a surprise but it has prompted reflection about the less commendable moments of his political leadership.

Trudeau was once the darling of Canadian politics but there were several times throughout his long career as Prime Minister where it seemed he couldn't stop getting himself into trouble. Not only for what he would say but also how he would say it. Take for example comments he made over a very expensive vacation in January 2024.

Trudeau accepted an expensive vacation from a friend that saw the Prime Minister stay at a former slave plantation in Jamacia according to a report from the Toronto Sun. However, that wasn't the worst part. The trip cost about $7,000 a night and totaled roughly $84,000 Canadian.

However, things only got worse for Trudeau when questioned about this vacation by The Globe and Mail journalist Marieke Walsh, who asked if the prime Minister thought it was right for him to accept such a pricey holiday vacation when Canadians were struggling to put food on their tables.

Trudeau replied by simply stating: "As many Canadians did, I stayed with friends over the holidays," with a smirk on his face and a monotone attitude that led to a great deal of criticism online from his political opponents and friends alike. But he made it even worse.

Walsh followed up his initial question by asking: “Many Canadians don’t have access to $90,000 free vacations, so can you explain the thinking as to why you take these vacations and how you think Canadians receive them?” And it was Trudeau's smirk and monotone reply to this that really made the situation a big gaffe for the PM.

"Like many Canadians did, I stayed with family friends over the holidays," Trudeau responded. It was just one of the many, many public political missteps that the Prime Minister has walked into since taking control of the reigns of the Liberal Party nearly a decade ago. Here are a few of his other worst quotes and public fumbles.

The first big gaffe that needs to be included on this list was uttered just a few years before Trudeau was elected to lead Canada, and the reason it needed to be added is because it provides a little foreshadowing of what Trudeau’s haters say is his dictatorial nature. 

In 2013, Trudeau said he admired China’s dictatorship while speaking at a fundraiser in Toronto. “There’s a level of admiration I actually have for China,” he said, “because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.”

When Trudeau was sitting in the opposition in 2015 he said the country’s budget would balance itself while talking about his vision for the economy: “The commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy and the budget will balance itself.”

The quote might have rallied Canadians at the time. But it has provided endless fodder for Trudeau’s political rivals, and the quote is still being used against him to this day by politicians on all sides of the aisle. 

Trudeau doubled down on his economic oddities, saying: “We’re proposing a strong and real plan, one that invests in the middle class so that we can grow the economy not from the top down the way Mr. Harper wants to, but from the heart outwards.” 

This one is less of a quote and more of a situation but Trudeau called his appearance in brownface a “dumb thing to do” after it was brought to the media’s attention years later. Unfortunately, other forays into brownface were leaked showing he did a lot of witless things. 

However, the problem was compounded when reporters pushed Trudeau on how many times he had worn black or brown face and he said: "I am wary of being definitive about this. The recent pictures I had not remembered.” It really made Canadians question him.

Trudeau actually has quite the penchant for dressing up in outfits of other cultures; it was something on full display during an official state trip to India in 2018. The whole Trudeau clan sported traditional Indian garb, sometimes actions just speak louder than words. 

Trudeau once drew some fierce criticism for correcting a woman who made the mistake of saying mankind during a town hall. He told the woman: “We like to say ‘people kind’, not necessarily ‘mankind’, because it’s more inclusive,” The Guardian reported. 

During the height of the Freedom Convoy protests in Canada, Trudeau called the group a “small minority of fringe people” as they made their way to Ottawa to voice grievances regarding the government's harsh Covid-19 lockdown according to The Independent. 

However, the Prime Minister also went on to say the members of the protest group held “unacceptable views.” Trudeau would later come to regret these comments and during a press conference said: “I wish I had phrased that differently,” The Hill Times reported. 

In April 2020, Trudeau was giving a press conference at the height of the pandemic and while discussing the importance of masks said they prevented people from “breathing or speaking moistly” on others. The awkward word choice went viral according to Narcity. 

Another great gaffe came while speaking at a rally just days after winning the election in 2021. Trudeau was quickly rhyming off the acronym LGBTQ+2 when he said “LDP… ah LGT… ha LBchee… ahhhhh… LGBTQ+2.” It was a painful watch that also went viral. 

One of Trudeau’s more recent mistakes really set the country off back in August 2023. He angered nearly every Canadian alive when he claimed that the federal government wasn’t responsible for dealing with the housing crisis in Canada. 

“I’ll be blunt as well. Housing isn’t a primary federal responsibility. It’s not something that we have direct carriage of,” Trudeau said the Toronto Star reported.

Trudeau's statment might have been enough to lose him the election if one was being held at the time, even if the second part of the quote had him saying: “But it is something that we can and must help with.”

Trudeau has uttered many more gaffes and oddities over the previous year, but they likely no longer matter since he will soon be replaced as Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader by someone new, whether or not this new leader will be able to sway Canadian public opinion to back the Liberals in the next election has yet to be seen.