International
Justin Trudeau’s star goes out among the Canadian population and his own party
After 10 years in power, Justin Trudeau’s star is dying at high speed: the electorate has turned their backs on him and, within his Liberal Party, more and more voices want him to resign to avoid a catastrophe in the elections scheduled for October 2025.
For months, the polls have all told the same story. Justin Trudeau is an unpopular prime minister and the Liberal Party is heading for a painful loss in the upcoming general election that may relegate him to third place in the lower house of Parliament.
What do the polls say?
The average of polls currently places the Conservative Party, led by Pierre Poilievre, with 42.5% of voting intention, while Trudeau’s Liberal Party is 19 points below, with 23.2%.
And what is worse for the critical voices within the Liberal Party, the lack of ideas and the immobility of the Justin Trudeau Government in the face of the problems that afflict the country anticipate that the next few months more Canadian will turn their backs on them.
Some even fear that the situation experienced in the 2008 elections will be reproduced when the Liberal Party, then in opposition and led by the intellectual Michael Ignatieff, was reduced to 34 deputies of the 308 seats that the Lower House of Parliament then had.
“It has been behind in the polls for some time now. That is not a huge problem when the elections are far away so the party gave Trudeau room to try to improve the situation because there was time left,” Andrew McDougall, professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, explained to EFE.
“But now there is only one year left before the next election. So the pressure has increased and the party is getting more and more impatient,” he added.
Justin Trudeau swept the 2015 general election
Paradoxically, Justin Trudeau took the leadership of the Liberal Party after the 2008 election disaster. Son of former minister and former liberal leader Pierre Trudeau, one of the most transcendental politicians in the modern history of Canada, he met expectations and in 2015 swept the general elections, becoming the twenty-third first minister of the country.
And also, paradoxically, one of the main proposals that brought him to power in 2015 was to open the country’s borders to receive more refugees and immigrants, both for economic reasons and to recover the founding spirit of Canada as a host country.
True to his promises, one of his first acts as prime minister after winning in 2015 was to go to Toronto airport to personally receive Syrian refugees.
Canada has changed
Ten years later, the North American country has changed. In 2015, Canada received 300,000 immigrants. Since then, the figure has not stopped growing. In 2022 there were 431,645, 16% more than in 2021. In 2023 there were 465,000. This year they will reach 485,000. From 2025, 500,000 per year.
Thanks to these migration levels, Canada is the G7 country with the highest population growth, with 2.7% per year. It is the highest level since 1957, when the explosion of post-war births and immigration placed the rate at 3.3%.
The problem for Justin Trudeau is that the country has not been able to absorb these levels of immigration. There are literally not enough housing for a population that in nine months between July 2023 and April 2024 grew by one million people.
Nor have basic services such as health care been able to keep up with the growth rate.
Trudeau acknowledged on Thursday that he was wrong and has announced that he will reduce the number of immigrants that Canada will receive by up to 27% in the next three years.
“We didn’t get the balance right,” he agreed.
“We are going to stabilize the growth of our population so that all levels of government have time to recover, to make the necessary investments in health, housing and social services. To accommodate more people in the future,” he added.
The question now is whether he will have time to recover the aura that has kept him in power since 2015, especially within the Liberal Party.
“Trudeau insists that he is the best person to lead the party, that no one would do it better. Most politicians believe they are the best to lead their formations. So I’m not surprised that Trudeau resists leaving power,” McDougall explained.
International
Meta Says Russia Seeks to Ban WhatsApp for Defending Secure Communication
U.S. tech giant Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, said that Russia is seeking to ban the messaging app because it “challenges government attempts to violate people’s right to secure communication.”
Russian authorities have encouraged citizens to switch to state-backed applications, and in August they already blocked WhatsApp’s calling feature.
On Friday, the communications regulator Roskomnadzor claimed that the platform was being used to “organize and carry out terrorist acts in the country, recruit perpetrators, and facilitate fraud and other crimes.”
“If the messaging service does not comply with Russian law, it will be completely blocked,” the regulator warned.
WhatsApp remains one of Russia’s most widely used messaging services, alongside Telegram.
Moscow is pressuring both platforms to grant authorities access to user data upon request for investigations into fraud and activities the government labels as “terrorist.”
Human rights advocates fear the demand could be used to target critics of the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin, or the war in Ukraine.
International
Archbishop Wenski criticizes Trump’s deportation policies, calls for stronger push for reform
The Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, has called for increased pressure on the U.S. Congress to advance comprehensive immigration reform and criticized President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policies, arguing that they “do nothing to help.”
“We need to apply more pressure on Congress so lawmakers can make the necessary changes. It is also important for the Administration to listen to our voice. We do not want to be anyone’s enemy—we are Americans,” Wenski said in an interview with EFE.
The religious leader, who heads one of the dioceses with the largest Latino and Haitian populations in the United States, issued a call to defend the rights of migrants. He also emphasized that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has maintained a strong and public stance in favor of migrants for decades.
International
Trump relaunches diplomatic push to finalize U.S.-Backed peace plan for Ukraine War
U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that his diplomatic team will resume meetings with delegations from Russia and Ukraine in an effort to pressure both sides to accept the peace plan proposed by Washington to end the war in Ukraine.
As part of this new round of talks, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will hold discussions with Ukrainian representatives to narrow differences on the remaining points of the agreement.
Trump also confirmed his intention to meet personally with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and with Putin, though he emphasized that such meetings will only take place “when the agreement is fully finalized or in its final stage.”
The president claimed that his administration has made “tremendous progress” toward resolving the conflict and reiterated that the war “never would have started” if he had been in the White House at the onset of the crisis.
The U.S.-backed peace plan consists of 28 points and has been revised following feedback from both sides. According to Trump, only “a few points of disagreement” remain under active discussion.
One of the most controversial aspects of the proposal is the suggestion that Ukraine cede parts of the Donbas region to Russia and limit the size of its armed forces. Kyiv is working closely with Washington to soften these clauses in search of an arrangement that does not compromise its sovereignty or security.
With this diplomatic push, Trump aims to solidify his role as the main mediator in the conflict and steer the war toward a political resolution after years of devastation, humanitarian crisis, and rising global geopolitical tensions.
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