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What’s Trudeau up to? Shouldn’t delivering for the middle class have rendered the populists moot? Aren’t we all middle class now?

There are four possible answers: 1) We are; 2) We aren’t; 3) Justin Trudeau has failed the middle class; and 4) All of the above.

Mark me down for option No. 4.

Most Canadians see themselves as middle class, even if they aren’t, and Trudeau and his government have exhibited enough elitism, and dug a big enough deficit, that merely repeating the words “middle class” won’t protect the Liberals from the fallout of their entitlement and largesse. Because there has been plenty of both, Trudeau is feeling vulnerable to populism.

We’ve had 24 Sussex renos, subsidized nannies, New Year’s in the Bahamas and mammoth moving expenses (since partially refunded) from Trudeau’s aides. Across the government, there have been mates’ rates on limo rides, excessive photo dosh, and cash-for-access fundraisers aplenty. Not very middle class, eh?

At some point, people will stop and notice things are a long way from sunny. Trudeau suddenly showing populist leg is an admission of that.

Will the heat be enough for Trudeau to change his policies in Budget 2017, or merely the words used to describe them?

Whatever we get, it won’t be wholesale change. No matter how popular populism might be, Trudeau can’t abandon the middle class. He’s invested too much narrative for wholesale policy change.

No, the middle class narrative will remain a key plank for Trudeau. And a versatile one, too, given it’s why we’re told he met secretly with Chinese billionaires after the Liberal party first took $1500 of their money. Heck, he even got the gilded Donald Trump to say the words (repeatedly) in their joint declaration following their recent Oval Office tête-à-tête.