Justin Trudeau has proved he can campaign, but can he govern?

It will take something more than a cheerful disposition to cope with Canada’s problems. The commodities boom, which had shielded Canada from the worst effects of the global financial crisis, has ended, revealing economic malaise. GDP and productivity have been growing at a plodding pace, firms do not innovate enough and infrastructure is overburdened. Consumer debt and house prices are frighteningly high. Business investment and exports have yet to take over from indebted consumers as motors of economic growth. Mr Trudeau’s infrastructure-spending plan is a start, but it is not enough. 

The change from Mr Harper’s prairie conservatism could be abrupt. The new prime minister plans to give the middle class a lift by cutting income taxes, which Mr Harper might have done, while raising the rate on incomes of more than C$200,000, which the Conservatives would certainly not have done. Where Mr Harper was reluctant to act on climate change, the new prime minister plans to reach agreement with Canada’s provinces on national targets for reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. He wants to legalise marijuana and take in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the year. He has promised to replace the British-style first-past-the-post voting system, though with what is not yet clear.