Justin Trudeau has marked over 100 days in office. This major milestone was reached last week on Friday.
Trudeau, prime minister and minister of youth, celebrated the occasion, 100 days on the job, by tweeting and conversing with youths. He answered a variety of questions via the social media site under the guise of a hashtag, #first100, including fielding questions about Star Wars, economics and a question about whether a hot dog was a sandwich, which he deemed was indeed a sandwich.
He also announced, via Twitter, the government will double the amount of jobs available in the Canada Summer Jobs Program.
So how did we get here, with an hyper-personal, social media conscious man as prime minister?
Trudeau swept into office this past October on the premise of change. An estimated 6.9 million Canadians voted Liberal, with 5.6 million voting Conservative followed by 3.5 million voting NDP.
Most say once a new government hits 100 days in power, it’s the time to grade them on the progress they’ve made.
So what has the federal government accomplished so far?
Trudeau has followed through with his election promise to withdraw Canada’s CF-18s from the fight against ISIS. Instead Canada will amp up training assistance to local troops.
The government missed their own self-imposed deadline to bring 25,000 Syrian refugees into Canada. The timeline was longer than they hoped but it will be met by the end of this month.
Following through with another election promise, the Trudeau unveiled a balanced cabinet of both men and women. After being sworn in, Trudeau was asked why he wanted to have a balanced cabinet. He responded by stating, “Because it’s 2015.”
The government has also pushed through a tax cut for the middle class, brought back the long form census and has launched a public inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.
Another election promise was to cap the federal deficit for the next four years at $10 billion. Liberals now say they will run a deficit much larger than initially promised.
The NDP were critical of the first 100 days, calling the first 100 days into a Liberal government a ‘missed opportunity’ in a release.
“One hundred days into a Liberal government and people are still working harder than ever, but can’t get ahead,” read the release.
Either way, 100 days is hardly long enough of a benchmark to judge success or failure. We will have to see what the next 265 days hold and especially when the federal budget is released next month.