Some things in politics are just inevitable.

For instance, it was predestined, that somewhere along the line, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would transform from a fairy tale handsome prince who could do no wrong, to everybody's favorite punching bag.

It just had to happen.

And now, at long last, it has: the "Punching bag era" is here.

British Columbian Premier John Horgan is jabbing Trudeau over this Trans Mountain Pipeline plan, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, along with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, are hitting the Prime Minister with court challenges to his carbon tax scheme, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is openly bashing his national climate plan and MP Leona Alleslev recently dealt an unexpected blow when she quit the Liberal caucus and crossed the floor to join the Conservatives.

Of course, just a year ago, such rebellious behaviour towards Trudeau would have been unimaginable.

After all, back then, everyone knew Trudeau's agenda had the overwhelming support of Canada's ruling classes, i.e. the "elites" lovingly embraced just about all of his policies — carbon tax, immigration, energy policy creating, at least, the semblance of a national consensus.

So to defy Trudeau and his policies was to brand oneself as someone from the political fringes.

And since no one likes to be scorned or ridiculed, politicians from all partisan stripes, who wanted to hang out with the "cool kids," were unwilling to take on Trudeau or to challenge his ideas too harshly.

Most notably, former Ontario Progressive Party leader Patrick Brown actually embraced Trudeau's carbon tax proposal, even though this went against the wishes of his own grassroots base.

So why are things so different now?  Why is attacking Trudeau suddenly more acceptable?

Well, the elite-created "consensus" was doomed to unravel, since ruling class opinion often doesn't reflect public opinion.

In fact, in his excellent book, Coming Apart, social scientist Charles Murray argues that society now has a "narrow elite", corporate executives, news editors, judges, Hollywood directors and scholars who set the public agenda, even though they have vastly different cultural attitudes and values and outlooks, from the mainstream public.

In other words, there is a huge disconnect between the ruled and the rulers.

So just because the Globe and Mail's editorial board thinks the carbon tax is great idea, doesn't mean Joe/Jane Q. Public, will be of the same view.

At any rate, whenever such disconnects between elites and non-elites becomes too wide, it leads to growing resentment among the ruled.

In societies that aren't democracies, this resentment sometimes lead to rebellions see the French Revolution.

Democracies, on the other hand, usually go another route eventually an entrepreneurial politician (an opportunist?) will sense the growing resentment bubbling up within the masses against an unpopular elitist agenda and tap into it for political gain.

That's what nationalistic, anti-immigration parties are doing in Europe, that's what US President Donald Trump did in America.

And that's what's starting to happen here in Canada.

Slowly but surely, Canadian politicians have come to see that Trudeau's links to "narrow elite" opinion are a potential weakness that can be exploited.

The first Canadian politician to understand this was former Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

Whereas everyone else was praising Trudeau's carbon tax, Wall defiantly opposed it.

At the time, he looked like an outlier, today, as more and more politicians are taking shots at the tax, he looks like a prophet.

So anyway, my point is, politicians are realizing that attacking Trudeau and his "elitist" policies are, if nothing else, a good way to mobilize their bases.

Sure, rattling the upper classes' favorite policies like this won't win points with the CBC or with the University of Toronto's Political Science Department, but it sure might win votes.

By the way, this doesn't mean, the Liberals will lose the next election, but it does mean they might have to "de-elite" their agenda a bit, so that it better reflects public opinion, especially when it comes to controversial issues like the carbon tax.

And yes, I know Trudeau says he will proudly defend the carbon tax during the next election.

All I can say to that is, "We'll see."