Cosmopolitans vs. Populists or: why the 4T scorns Justin Trudeau
Outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the G20 in Brazil. Image credit: Eraldo Peres / Associated Press / Alamy.
by David Agren, writer at large.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday amid deep domestic unpopularity and talk of tariffs and annexation from US President-elect Donald Trump. His resignation captured international attention – such was his celebrity – and offered another example of the waning star of progressive politics around the world.
Mexico was no different, though 4T supporters piled on the outgoing prime minister. His version of progressive politics was embraced more by opponents of Andrés Manuel López Obrador than the former president’s diehard supporters, The scorn stemmed mostly from supporters unable to separate Trudeau from his Mexican fans – many of whom hailed from the middle class, vigorously opposed the 4T (with AMLO branding them “fífis”) and sounded the alarm on democratic decline.
Many 4T social media users mocked commentator Denise Dresser for her previous effusive comments about Trudeau – while ignoring others now in the 4T who fanboyed and fangirled over the prime minister on a 2017 trip to Mexico City.
Twitter gadfly Jorge Gómez Narredo, a pro-4T voice on the social media platform X, summed up the sentiment by insisting: “Justin Trudeau is admired by the Mexican right. They said he was capable, attractive and a good leader. They asked for a person like that for Mexico, not AMLO.”
The idea that Trudeau was “admired” by the Mexican right was a curious claim. Right-wingers the length of the Latin American hemisphere derided the Canadian prime minister as a standard bearer of woke politics and celebrated his exit.
Gómez Narredo continued, “Trudeau went to kneel before Trump, his government was a mess and now he has had to resign. And in Mexico we had a giant.”
The X post continued the mythology that President Claudia Sheinbaum is somehow biting back at Trump, a figure who got along with AMLO and has not been bashed by 4T fans despite his threats against Mexico. She drew international attention this week for trolling Trump in response to Trump proposing the Gulf of Mexico be called the “Gulf of America.”
In the meantime, the AP ran a story on Mexico possibly taking non-Mexican deportees from the United States, despite previous protestations that the country only receive its own citizens.
Canada, of course, got crosswise with Mexico after Trump threatened tariffs on both countries if drugs and migrants didn’t stop crossing the border. Several premiers proposed cutting Mexico out of the USMCA – with Ontario premier Doug Ford calling comparisons between Canada and Mexico “insulting.” Canada’s ambassador to Washington later said that Canadian leaders had told Trump the Canadian and Mexican borders were incomparable.
Sheinbaum shot back by saying Canada had problems with fentanyl, while insisting Mexico has no such problems. She pointed to a major drug lab bust in Canada. She even played the cultural superiority card. Canada “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has,” she said.
Canada’s readiness to throw Mexico under the bus and the 4T influencers’ gloating over Trudeau’s demise reflect the distancing in relations between the two countries. The distancing started with relations at the top.
AMLO’s populist approach to politics contrasted with Trudeau’s cosmopolitan image. Trudeau passed on attending a July 2020 White House summit of North American leaders to celebrate the USMCA signing. AMLO appeared and praised Trump for “not treating us like a colony.” AMLO got a Trump re-election campaign cameo for his appearance. AMLO later left Trudeau and US President Joe Biden standing awkwardly as he droned on with a 28-minute answer at the January 2023 North American leaders summit.
There were commercial disputes, too. Canada joined in on US trade disputes, arguing Mexico’s rules on clean energy undermined existing investments. Mexico slow-rolled the dispute – with a source saying Canadian officials could not initially arrange meetings with the new economy secretary Raquel Buenrostro in 2022.
But much of the dislike boils down to values and the kind of political left represented by Trudeau and his ilk, versus that of the 4T.
“It’s the rejection of a left that represents the idea of democratic pluralism, where sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, where the minorities have rights and where the opposition are not treated as traitors,” said Bárbara González, a political analyst in Monterrey.
It’s this vision of the left that sees the 4T embracing Venezuela – sending a representative to Nicolás Maduro’s January 10 inauguration after a widely discredited election – while scorning Biden and Trudeau.
Federico Estévez, political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico summed up the contrast more succinctly, calling it “cosmopolitans versus populists.” The populists are easily winning in Mexico.