Ottawa is in meltdown. Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, has sparked a fresh wave of criticism after ditching a national team match to attend a pop concert with his girlfriend. The PM's office confirmed he was in Toronto on Wednesday night to see Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, rather than cheering on the Canadian men's national soccer team in a crucial World Cup qualifier against Honduras.
Boyfriend duties call," a source close to Trudeau told me. The admission has enraged opposition MPs and even some Liberal backbenchers.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre pounced, calling it 'an appalling dereliction of duty.' The optics are catastrophic. A prime minister who claims to champion Canadian pride and unity chooses a billionaire pop star over his country's athletes.
The backstage pass to Swift's show is now a political liability. Internal polling, which I have seen, shows a dip among working-class voters in the suburbs. 'He's lost touch,' one senior Liberal strategist admitted to me.
'The game has changed.' The PM's team insists he is fully engaged on policy. But in politics, perception is everything.
And right now, the perception is a man more interested in celebrity than country. The question is: can he recover? Or is this the beginning of the end for Trudeau's premiership?
Watch this space.
