Don Martin: Despite his horrible year, Trudeau's determined to roll the dice again

In his column for CTVNews.ca, political commentator Don Martin says you can't help but admire Justin Trudeau's defiance and audacity of hope despite his 'horrible' 2023, as it appears Trudeau is insisting on leading the Liberals into the next federal election.

You can’t help but admire the audacity of his hopes as Justin Trudeau’s horrible year ends.

The prime minister faced marital separation on the home front, endured political challenges across Canada and stoked global controversies in 2023.

Yet he still defiantly declares, without giving himself even a millimetre of wiggle-away room, that he will stick around to lead another campaign to victory, an optimistic expectation without much supportive evidence.

Bombarded by failures to act consistently on many issues, facing a deep red deficit which should handcuff even the most determined spender, whacked by polling which appears beyond repair and facing a Canadian prime ministerial history laughing down his dream of a fourth straight mandate, something not done in 111 years, Trudeau perseveres still.

Perhaps it’s a character flaw, but one supposes it could just as easily be seen as an emotional survival strategy, to confront so many jagged obstacles and see only clear runway ahead.

After all, Trudeau and few others saw the Liberal surge from third place to a majority mandate in 2015.

But to be able to mute the ever-louder protests on his waffling Israel-Gaza positions, ignore the cool greetings while gladhanding in restaurants and see only rainbows in so many storm clouds, it takes a partly delusional, partly narcissistic and mostly rose-coloured-spectacled personality.