A dancing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau steals the show at Markham, Ont. street festival (2024)

Although one of Canada’s largest cultural festival is currently underway in Ontario, it was Justin Trudeau’s dance moves that appeared to draw a wider audience online.

The prime minister was spotted at the Taste of Asia at Markham this Friday. Described as one of North America’s largest outdoor festival, as per its website, the Taste of Asia runs from June 28 to June 30 and aims to celebrate diverse Asian cuisine and culture.

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One of the widely circulated videos of Trudeau at the festival shows him dancing in front of a food stall, interacting with the vendors, shaking hands and taking photos. It was his celebratory dance that drew swift commentary.

“Low polling, losing a byelection, no problem. Let’s dance it off,” posted Melissa Mbarki, Policy Analyst and Outreach Coordinator, Indigenous Policy Program, on X, formerly Twitter. “TRUDEAU 🇨🇦 celebrating something, not sure what though after his historic LOSS in St. Paul’s byelection and destroying Canada,” tweeted Melissa Rogers, a content creator who as per her YouTube channel, aims to create a dialogue “around present day society and freedom.”

https://twitter.com/melissambarki/status/1807131916812087619

Trudeau’s appearance at the festival comes after a historic byelection loss at Toronto—St.Paul’s riding, where Conservative candidate Don Stewart defeated Leslie Church earlier this week. The Liberal Party had comfortably held the riding for the past 30 years.

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“These are not easy times, and it is clear I, and my entire Liberal team, have much more work to do to deliver tangible, real progress that Canadians can see and feel,” Trudeau said on Tuesdayat a press conference in British Columbia.

Trudeau’s appearance at the festival also prompted MP Andrew Scheerto echo a growing sentiment calling upon Trudeau to step down. On X, Scheer shared the video of Trudeau dancing and wrote, “Caption contest… I’ll go first: Dance like nobody is calling for your resignation.”

The byelection loss has prompted several former federal Liberal ministersto call upon Trudeau to resign includingformer B.C. premier Christy Clarkwho told Toronto Star that Trudeau “doesn’t have the pull with voters that he once had, but more importantly, he isn’t even able to motivate some of the people in the country who are most likely to vote for his party.”

“In my experience, if people don’t feel like the country is going in the right direction — and clearly Canada isn’t going in the right direction right now — they will blame the leader and they should. Because the leader sets the agenda. The leader is the one that gives direction to his or her cabinet. The leader is the one who sets the economic priorities or fails to do so,” she told Toronto Star.

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