OTTAWA - Justin Trudeau is resigning after more than nine years as Canada’s prime minister, bowing to dreadful polls and a rebellion within his governing Liberal party.
Trudeau, 53, currently the longest-serving leader of any Group of Seven country, said he was stepping down because it had become clear he was unable to unite the Liberals going into an election that must be held this year.
He will remain as prime minister until a new leader is selected — probably sometime in March. Parliament has been suspended until March 24 while that process is under way.
A national vote is due by October, but could come as early as March or April. The three major opposition parties have said they will back a motion of no confidence in the government. If they follow through on that threat and topple the minority Liberals, an election campaign would begin immediately.
The winner of the Liberal contest is set to become Canada’s 24th prime minister and will have to quickly prepare for an election that will be difficult to win. The Conservative Party has built a huge lead in public opinion surveys, led by Pierre Poilievre, who has been able to capitalise on Canadians’ concerns about the economy, the cost of living and housing.
“This cannot go on,” Poilievre said in a video posted on X shortly after Trudeau’s announcement, reiterating his call for an immediate election.
“Canadians can take back control of their lives and their country. Take back control of our border. Take back control of immigration. Take back control of spending, deficits and inflation.”
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the New Democratic Party, told reporters his caucus intends to vote against the government regardless of who is chosen as the new Liberal leader.
“I am not someone who backs away from a fight,” Trudeau said outside his residence on a freezing cold Monday in Ottawa. “But I have always been driven by my love for Canada, by my desire to serve Canadians and by what is in the best interest of Canadians.”
Trudeau’s political future has been shaky for months, as he proved unable to reverse a slide in his party’s fortunes that accelerated after an inflation shock, and the resulting jump in interest rates, took a toll on Canadian households. Support from his caucus of about 150 MPs has melted away in recent weeks.
“Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election and it has become obvious to me, with the internal battles, that I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election,” Trudeau said.
His departure makes him the latest leader of an advanced economy to lose his grip on power. US President Joe Biden was forced to drop his run for re-election, Rishi Sunak’s party suffered a humbling defeat in the UK’s general election, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appears set to lose a forthcoming vote.
The Canadian dollar strengthened against the US dollar as news began to circulate of Trudeau’s departure, but pared those gains after US President-elect Donald Trump denied a Washington Post report that his aides are considering changes to his tariff plan.
For Trudeau, the fatal blow was administered by Chrystia Freeland, his longtime deputy prime minister and finance minister. Once one of his closest allies, she stunned Canadians on Dec 16 by publishing a stinging resignation letter that indirectly criticised Trudeau for “costly political gimmicks” at a time when Canada is preparing for a possible trade war with the US.
Freeland’s exit ignited already smouldering discontent across Trudeau’s party. Dozens of elected members of his own caucus publicly and privately pressed for him to go in the face of more than a year of weak polling numbers.
Potential candidates for the Liberal leadership include Freeland; Dominic LeBlanc, Trudeau’s childhood friend and Freeland’s replacement as finance minister; Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly; Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson; and Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England.
Carney has become involved in Liberal politics since his return to Canada in 2020, though he has never run for political office. He said late Monday that he was considering entering the race to replace Trudeau.
Carney, 59, said he was “encouraged and honoured by the support that I’ve already been hearing” from Liberal lawmakers and supporters “who want us to move forward with positive change and a winning economic plan”.
The race may also draw others who currently aren’t in federal politics, such as former British Columbia premier Christy Clark. (Story continues below)
Former Canadian finance minister Chrystia Freeland, whose public criticism of Justin Trudeau set in motion the events leading to his resignation, is considered one of the main candidates to succeed him. (Photo: Reuters)
‘Sunny ways’
Politics was always Justin Trudeau’s destiny. His first home, in fact, was the prime minister’s official residence: He was born during the first of his father’s four terms in Canada’s highest political office.
When Trudeau took over the leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013, it was still reeling from its worst-ever electoral defeat in 2011 and had lost progressive voters to the left-wing New Democratic Party.
Trudeau surrounded himself with young advisers and crafted plans to legalise recreational marijuana, implement a national carbon tax, advance reconciliation with Indigenous people and invest billions of dollars in infrastructure.
He promised looser fiscal policy — including budget deficits — and programmes to reduce inequality.
Backed by a famous name and a skill for retail politics, he packed rally halls and projected a positive outlook, which he called “sunny ways”. By election day in October 2015, he’d pulled the Liberals from third place to a historic election victory, boosted by strong support from younger voters.
Governing proved harder than winning. Oil prices tumbled in the year leading up to Trudeau’s victory, weakening the Canadian economy. Then Donald Trump was elected and threatened to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement, risking Canada’s access to the US market, which had become central to Canada’s economy since an earlier trade deal was struck in the 1980s.
Trudeau tapped his trusted lieutenant Freeland to negotiate with the Trump administration. The deal struck in 2018, which kept much of the original trade accord intact, was one of his most important accomplishments as prime minister. Trump used Trudeau’s resignation to repeat an insult about Canada being the 51st state.
Minority years
But as Trudeau prepared to run for a second term in 2019, his government was rocked by an ethical scandal. SNC-Lavalin Group, one of Canada’s largest engineering firms and a big employer in Trudeau’s home city of Montreal, was charged with fraud and corruption. Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould publicly accused key members of the government of wrongly pressuring her to assent to a deal that would resolve the charges.
Trudeau won the October 2019 election, but the Liberals lost their parliamentary majority and finished second to the Conservatives in the popular vote. Much of his remaining years were defined by the Covid pandemic and its aftermath.
In the past two years, cost-of-living concerns have swamped Trudeau, despite his government’s expansion of the social-safety net through a child benefit, subsidised daycare and federal dental care.
Some economists blamed the government for keeping the pandemic spending taps open too long, while failing to ensure housing construction was keeping pace with high levels of immigration. Trudeau embarked on a dramatic immigration U-turn in 2024, trying to slow population growth.
But it was clear the government had lost its footing.
The past two years have “shown a government that’s kind of listless, and this is not uncommon when a government is reaching years eight, nine and approaching year 10”, said Emmett Macfarlane, a professor of political science at the University of Waterloo.
“Their ability to kind of have a clear vision for a policy agenda seemed to evaporate. The communications were increasingly poor.”
