Author of The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau, Stephen Maher, points to the act that triggered the caucus dissent: “Chrystia stuck the knife in him,” he tells me from Nova Scotia. “It had to have been crushing,” says Maher. “Everybody else could see there wasn’t a way back from it, but it took him some time to realize that he was done.”
To be sure, Justin Trudeau needed weeks over the holidays to see the writing on the wall—and to finally accept what that meant for him. There was a lot to process. “He had lost his marriage, strained long-term friendships, consumed all his political capital, and then found himself standing there, spent,” says Maher.
