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Over his four years as prime minister, it has become noteworthy how often Justin Trudeau faces problems of his own making.

His sanctimony keeps coming back to bite him. Canadians who follow politics have long been aware of the prime minister’s weakness for pious declarations of well-intentioned morality. His success in defeating the Conservative government of Stephen Harper owed much to the stark contrast between Trudeau’s starry-eyed optimism and Harper’s no-fun pragmatism.

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It may have seemed at the time that tying himself to a shining idealism offered little to lose for the Liberal leader. Unfortunately, the years since have demonstrated otherwise.

His sanctimony keeps coming back to bite him

Staunch assertions of his devotion to feminism, for instance, ran aground when he found himself faced with a senior female cabinet minister who assiduously refused to cave to his demands that she change her position on a Quebec-based company seeking political help from the government. Jody Wilson-Raybould’s principled stand saw her badmouthed by colleagues, arm-twisted to concede, turfed from her job and ultimately hustled right out of the Liberal caucus by an intransigent Trudeau.