Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s daily itineraries from 2022 reveal that he worked 0-2 hours for 42% of the year.
For 154 days of the year (42%), Trudeau’s itinerary shows:
- 84 personal days off
- 20 days strictly marked as “private meetings”
- *50 days with only one brief working item
*This number is actually 55, but five of the days were full travel days / in-person cabinet retreat / all-day Emergencies Act testimony.
The 84 personal days were either spent vacationing or relaxing at home on weekends, with Sundays being his most popular day off.
In April, Trudeau took off 5 days for a trip to Whistler, BC.
In August, he went to Costa Rica for 14 days. (Albeit, the following 3 days were marked as strictly “private meetings,” which some suggest is code for “nothing.”)
In December, Trudeau took off to Jamaica on the 24th – but he’d already mailed it in for the year on the 21st.
As for days that Trudeau had only one item marked on his itinerary (on top of “private meetings”), below are the 50 days The Counter Signal counted, all of which appear to require less than 2 hours of actual work.
- Jan. 5: 11:30 a.m. The Prime Minister will address Canadians on the COVID-19 situation along with Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos.
- Jan 7: 11:30 a.m. The Prime Minister will participate in a private virtual discussion with the families of the victims of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy.
- Jan. 8: 2:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will deliver remarks at a virtual commemoration event to mark the second anniversary of the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 tragedy.
- Jan. 10, Jan. 11, and Jul. 17: The Prime Minister will speak with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- Jan. 12: The Prime Minister will address Canadians on the COVID-19 situation along with Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos.
- Jan. 13: The Prime Minister will speak with the High Representative of the African Union Commission for the Horn of Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo.
- Jan. 14: 9:15 a.m. The Prime Minister, along with Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould, will virtually join Premier of Nova Scotia Tim Houston and Nova Scotia Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Becky Druhan to make an early learning and child care announcement.
- Jan. 15: The Prime Minister will speak with the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed.
- Jan. 17: 6:15 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in a virtual celebration of Thai Pongal featuring front-line workers to highlight the contributions of Tamil Canadians during the pandemic.
- Jan. 20: The Prime Minister will receive a COVID‑19 briefing from Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam.
- Jan. 25: 10:30 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend the virtual Cabinet retreat.
- Jan. 28: 11:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend the virtual National Caucus Winter Retreat.
- Jan. 29: The Prime Minister will speak with representatives of the Centre culturel islamique de Québec on the fifth anniversary of the fatal shooting.
- Feb. 7: 7:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the current situation in Ottawa.
- Feb. 10: 2:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will attend Question Period.
- Feb. 27: The Prime Minister will speak with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres.
- Mar. 5: The Prime Minister will speak with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
- Mar. 13: The Prime Minister will speak with the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric.
- Mar. 14: The Prime Minister will speak with the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan.
- Mar. 15: 11:15 a.m. The Prime Minister will deliver remarks in the House of Commons. An address to Parliament from the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will follow.
- Mar. 30: The Prime Minister, along with Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller, will meet with the Chief of Williams Lake First Nation Willie Sellars, Council Members, Elders, residential school Survivors, and other members of the community.
- Apr. 10: 9:00 a.m. A joint interview with the Prime Minister, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Global Citizen CEO, Hugh Evans, will air on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. (Probably aired on a separate day from when it was filmed, which would mean this day was a personal day off)
- Apr. 25: 4:15 p.m. The Prime Minister will meet with members of the Parliamentary Internship Programme.
- May 3: 11:00 a.m. The Prime Minister and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau will attend the national funeral of Guy Lafleur and deliver a brief statement prior to the service.
- May 16: 2:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will meet with the Mayor of Regina, Sandra Masters.
- Jun. 18: The Prime Minister will speak with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte.
- Jul. 4: The Prime Minister will speak with the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz.
- Jul. 8: 12:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in the unveiling of the Humanity Art Installation.
- Jul. 10: 10:30 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend the Calgary Stampede. Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance Randy Boissonnault will also be in attendance.
- Jul. 13: The Prime Minister will make an announcement and hold a media availability. Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne and Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli will also be in attendance.
- Jul. 24: 11:20 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend His Holiness Pope Francis’ arrival in Canada.
- Jul. 25: 10:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend the Papal visit in Ermineskin Cree Nation.
- Jul. 28: 10:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend a Holy Mass celebrated by His Holiness Pope Francis.
- Aug. 24: The Prime Minister will meet with the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg.
- Aug. 28: 10:30am The Prime Minister and Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth Marci Ien will make an announcement.
- Sep. 5: 4:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will deliver a statement on the tragedy in Saskatchewan.
- Sep. 12: 1:45 p.m. The Prime Minister will attend the National Caucus Retreat and deliver brief remarks.
- Sep. 14: The Prime Minister will speak with the President of Kenya, William Ruto.
- Sep. 25: The Prime Minister will chair a meeting of the Incident Response Group on Hurricane Fiona.
- Oct. 3: 4:00 p.m. The Prime Minister will present the Prime Minister’s Awards for Teaching Excellence.
- Oct. 21: 9:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will make an announcement and hold a media availability.
- Oct. 22: 6:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will attend the annual Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner.
- Oct. 29: 2:45 p.m. The Prime Minister will participate in the global Freedom Human Chain rally in support of the ongoing protests in Iran.
- Nov. 24: 2pm: The Prime Minister will attend Question Period.
- Dec. 1: 1:30 p.m. The Prime Minister will make an announcement on delivering dental care for children under 12 and hold a media availability.
- Dec. 17: 11:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will attend the funeral of the Honourable Jim Carr and deliver an address.
- Dec. 19: The Prime Minister will speak with the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley.
In all, these 50 days appear to primarily be phone calls, or showing up to read the teleprompter for 20 minutes. The Counter Signal’s analysis makes the following assumptions:
- The aforementioned 50 days required less than 2 hours of actual work.
- The 20 days of strictly “private meetings” entailed less than 2 hours of work (and some believe these are in fact vacation days.)
Given these assumptions are accurate, Trudeau worked 0-2 hours for 42% of the year.
In fact, several days took place in 2022 when Trudeau had just two scheduled items that would take only half of a day, such as:
- Feb. 4:
- The Prime Minister will speak with the Prime Minister of Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre.
- 11:00 a.m. The Prime Minister will virtually meet with Grade 9 and Grade 12 students from Smallwood Academy in Gambo, Newfoundland and Labrador. Member of Parliament for Bonavista—Burin—Trinity Churence Rogers will also be in attendance.
As of April 1, Trudeau’s estimated salary is $379,404, which accounts for a $21,604 pay increase.
