Canada PM Trudeau announces resignation
World
Trudeau is likely to announce resignation but no final decision has been made
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that he intends to step down as leader of the ruling Liberals after nine years in office but will stay on in his post until the party chooses a replacement.
Trudeau, under heavy pressure from Liberal legislators to quit amid polls showing the party will be crushed at the next election, said at a news conference that parliament would be suspended until March.
That means Trudeau will still be prime minister on January 20 when US President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs that would cripple Canada’s economy.
Trudeau, 53, took office in November 2015 and won reelection twice, becoming one of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers.
But his popularity started dipping two years ago amid public anger over high prices and a housing shortage, and his fortunes never recovered.
Polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October, regardless of who the leader is.
Parliament was due to resume on Jan 27 and opposition parties had vowed to bring down the government as soon as they could, most likely at the end of March.
But if Parliament does not return until March 24, the earliest they could present a non-confidence motion would be sometime in May.
CALLS TO RESIGN GROW
Trudeau took over as Liberal leader in 2013 when the party was in deep trouble and had been reduced to third place in the House of Commons for the first time.
If he does resign, it would likely spur fresh calls for a quick election to put in place a stable government able to deal with the administration of President-elect Donald Trump for the next four years.
The prime minister has discussed with Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc whether he would be willing to step in as interim leader and prime minister, one source told the newspaper, adding that this would be unworkable if LeBlanc plans to run for the leadership.
But calls for him to step aside have grown since December, when Trudeau tried to demote Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of his closest cabinet allies, after she pushed back against his proposals for more spending.
Freeland quit instead and penned a letter accusing Trudeau of "political gimmicks" rather than focusing on what was best for the country.
Trudeau propelled the Liberals to power in 2015 promising "sunny ways" and a progressive agenda that promoted the rights of women and a promise to fight climate change.
But the everyday realities of governing gradually wore him down and like many Western leaders, the need to deal with the effects of the pandemic ate up much of his time.
Although Ottawa spent heavily to protect consumers and businesses, racking up record budget deficits, this provided little protection from public anger as prices soared.
A botched immigration policy led to hundreds of thousands of arrivals, straining an already overheated housing market.
