Justin Trudeau’s career is the stuff of 21st-century political drama, with an arc that has taken him from glamorous liberal standard-bearer to the butt of jokes by President-elect Donald J. Trump and his acolytes.

He burst onto the international scene in 2015, a newly elected young leader of Canada.

And he spent the next decade building a brand around being a feminist, an environmentalist, a refugee and Indigenous rights advocate, pursuing the same message of change and hope as Barack Obama.

While he drew fawning reviews in the news media — including over his poster boy looks — his honeymoon with Canadians really lasted only about two years; by 2017, a series of controversies had already tarnished his picture-perfect image.

His party went on to lose the popular vote in two elections, in 2019 and 2021, requiring him to form minority governments propped up by a small opposition party. That support, too, has now evaporated.

Today, Mr. Trudeau finds himself — like other Western leaders — facing an angry constituency and losing control.

He will soon either call elections that he’ll most likely lose, or he’ll step down as leader of his party and as prime minister, and let a different leader take the Liberals to the ballot box next year.