Centrist Cascading Collapse

New additions to the ranks of populists and autocrats around the world since Trump's first term will render the challenge even more formidable. The steady stewardship that Europe and the liberal world in general could count on under former German Chancellor Angela Merkel's leadership seems from a bygone era

The resignation of Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday caps a month of high drama across the Atlantic that has triggered the premature termination of three centrist governments. The endgame was in plain sight for weeks, if not months, for all three leaders in question. Two of them bowed down gracefully. Trudeau, once the wonderkid premier who won three national elections after occupying high office for nearly a decade, has for too long ignored the writing on the wall.

In mid-December, his long-term ally, the deputy prime minister and finance minister Chrystia Freeland, quit the cabinet. Her outrage was against a proposed exemption to the goods and services tax and a C$250 cheque to nearly half of the population. These were costly gimmicks in the wake of looming tariff threats from Donald Trump, averred Ms. Freeland in her resignation letter. The New Democratic Party, Trudeau's coalition partner, has declared emphatically that it would back a no-confidence vote in parliament. Several ministers have quit in the past year. Despite this steady erosion of support, Trudeau has suspended parliament until 24 March rather than face a vote of confidence, in a bid to buy time for his Liberal Party to choose a new leader. The Conservative Party, which is way ahead in opinion polls, has accused Trudeau's gambit of naked trickery.