Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes a statement outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.
Adrian Wyld | Canadian Press via AP
Canada’s Justin Trudeau said Monday he will step down as leader of the ruling Liberal Party but will remain prime minister until a new leader is chosen.
“I intend to resign as the leader of the party, as prime minister after the party chooses its next leader through a robust … process,” he said during a press conference on Monday. He added that the Canadian Parliament will be adjourned until March.
The local press reported that he was expected to announce his resignation before the club’s key national meeting on Wednesday.
Canada’s latest political crisis was sparked by the sudden departure of former Trudeau ally and deputy finance minister Chrystia Freeland, who resigned in December, citing differences over Ottawa’s response to potential U.S. trade nationalism over the next four years under the incoming Donald Trump administration.
Dominic LeBlanc has since been appointed to replace her and hold the Finance Minister’s portfolio.
Trudeau, 53, who took office in 2015 and was re-elected twice, suffered a drop in voter approval to just 19% after Freeland’s departure, pollster Abacus Data found on December 17. On December 30, Angus Reid declared “a tough year for the federal Liberals” and assessed only 16% of public support for the party — its weakest level since the institute began monitoring in 2014.
The opposition Conservative Party now has more than a 20% lead in the polls ahead of a general election expected at the end of October – and its fiery leader Pierre Poilievre has won compliments from Trump ally Elon Musk, who recently praised his “big interview”.
Despite growing calls for his resignation, Trudeau has held off on taking that step since mid-December, and the Liberal Party lacks a mechanism to oust its leader without consensus.
As a new blow to Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, leader of the allied left-wing New Democratic Party, announced on December 20 in an open letter intent on launching a movement to topple the Trudeau government, paving the way for elections.
“Justin Trudeau has failed in the most important task a prime minister has: to work for the people, not the powerful,” Singh said, according to a CNBC translation. “Justin Trudeau’s Liberals made a lot of nice promises. Yet they failed the people, time and time again.”
Trudeau recently presided over a Canadian economy that has just dropped inflation below its 2% target in Novemberbut is still affected by household debt, growing unemploymentthe worst productivity performance in the OECD in 2023 and the panoptic exposure of the USA – where the newly elected President Trump, disparaging “Governor” Trudeau, has already teased the possibility of both 25% of the tariff and merger.
Differences over Canada’s response to Trump’s “aggressive economic nationalism” finally separated Freeland from Trudeau last month.
“We must take this threat very seriously,” she warned in his resignationstressing “serious challenges facing the United States” and calling for resistance to “‘America First’ economic nationalism with determined efforts to fight for the capital and investment and jobs they bring.”
This latest news is being updated.
