In this book, independent experts analyze the performance of Justin Trudeau’s years in power in over 25 important areas of government policy. The record of what has been done – and what hasn’t – will surprise even well-informed readers.

The focus is on six policy areas: Indigenous rights, governance and housing; the environment and energy; taxes and spending; healthcare and social benefits; foreign policy, immigration, and trade; and social policy including drug reform, labour rights, and racism.

Editors KATHERINE SCOTT, LAURA MACDONALD and STUART TREW of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Carleton University have recruited Canada’s most knowledgeable experts in their areas to contribute to this volume.

KATHERINE SCOTT is a Senior Researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and serves as the director for its gender equality and public policy work. She has worked in the community sector as a researcher, writer and advocate over the past 25 years. She served as Vice President of Research at the Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) for several years and, has produced research and analysis for organizations such as Prosper Canada, Volunteer Canada, Capacity Canada, Pathways to Education Canada, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Katherine lives in Ottawa with her family.

Katherine Scott's profile page

LAURA MACDONALD is a professor in the Department of Political Science and the Institute of Political Economy at Carleton University, and a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. She has published numerous articles in journals and edited collections on issues ranging from the role of non-governmental organizations in development to the political impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement. Laura Macdonald lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Laura Macdonald's profile page

STUART TREW is the editor of the CCPA Monitor, a bimonthly publication of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He was previously a trade researcher and campaigner with the Council of Canadians and, before that, editor of a popular weekly newspaper in Ottawa.

Stuart Trew's profile page

"The book is an invaluable resource—it provides a well-researched and clearly written evaluation of the Trudeau government’s record. Individual chapters explore, document, and provide balanced assessments of a comprehensive range of policy areas. It deserves a wide readership amongst activists, policy practitioners, students, academics, and the general public.”

— Stephen McBride, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Globalization at McMaster University

"The latest in the CCPA’s indispensable series of field reports about political parties in office, this collection of sharp, clear-eyed analysis is the definitive account of the Trudeau decade. The authors even-handedly take stock of an “all of the above” government, which conceded some gains to social movements while preserving the power of corporate titans to guzzle record profits and accelerate climate breakdown. This is an intellectual toolbox to help us understand the persisting inequalities and fraying safety net now being preyed on by a surging right—and to fight back.”

— Martin Lukacs, journalist and author of The Trudeau Formula (2019)