Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepping down as party leader after nearly 10 years in office
The leader propelled the Liberals to power in 2015 promising ‘sunny ways’ and a progressive agenda
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Your support makes all the difference.Justin Trudeau said Monday that he will step down as prime minister of Canada, after weeks of mounting pressure from within his ruling Liberal Party about how to deal with incoming U.S. President Donald Trump and trade tariffs he has promised.
Speaking outside his residence at Rideau Cottage, Trudeau said he had taken time over the holidays to “reflect” with his family.
“Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement,” Trudeau said.
“So last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I’m sharing with you today. I intend to resign as party leader as prime minister after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process.”
He cited “internal battles” within the Liberal Party that meant he “cannot be the best option” in the next election.
Trudeau's departure comes as polls show the Liberals could badly lose to the opposition Conservative Party in an election that must be held by late October.
Trudeau, 53, had been able to fend off Liberal legislators worried about the polls and the loss of safe seats in two special elections, but his government was thrown into chaos last month after his deputy prime minister and minister of finance, Chrystia Freeland, abruptly resigned from the cabinet, just hours before she was set to deliver the country’s first economic update since the U.S. election.
Trump, who recently referred to the Canadian prime minister as the governor of “the great state of Canada,” has promised to slap 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods when he enters office in January.
Those tariffs add serious uncertainty to the future of the Canadian economy as it continues to struggle with high inflation.
Freeland, a long-time ally of Trudeau, said in her resignation letter that she and the prime minister had been at odds over the best path forward for the country, and the tariffs posed a “grave challenge” for the economy.
“We need to take that threat extremely seriously,” she said, adding the government needed to eschew “costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment.”
At Monday’s press conference, Trudeau was asked for his side of the story over the altercation with Freeland.
Trudeau praised her as an “incredible political partner” of almost a decade, but expressed disappointment in her resignation.
“Chrystia has been by my side for close to 10 years now. She has been an incredible political partner through just about everything we have done as a government and as a party over the past decade,” Trudeau said.
“I had really hoped that she would agree to continue as my deputy prime minister and take on one of the most important files that not just this government, this country is facing, but she chose otherwise in regards to what actually happened.”
He declined to give any details of their private conversations.
When challenged about how the government can protect Canadians from the “threat of tariffs” from Trump when the party will be “focused” on a leadership contest, Trudeau insisted the government would be “singularly focused” on “fighting” for its citizens.
“The government will still and the cabinet will still be very much focused on doing the job the Canadians elected us to do in 2021, which is fight for their interests, stand up for their wellbeing and make sure that they are good and the Canadians are protected and strong,” Trudeau said.
“There will be a leadership process and the rules will unfold over the coming weeks, but I can assure you that the tools and the need to stand up for Canadians to protect Canadians in their interests and continue to fight for the economy is something that everyone in this government will be singularly focused on.”
Trudeau, who has led the country for nearly a decade, has become deeply unpopular in recent times thanks to booming immigration, soaring housing prices and inflation. According to a June survey, more than 70 percent of Canadians think the country is “broken.”
The leader 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 the climate crisis. His party won a surprise majority in that election, taking 184 of the 338 seats in parliament
But the everyday realities of governing gradually wore him down and like many Western leaders, the need to deal with the effects — and fallout — from the Covid-19 pandemic ate up much of his time.
Although his government 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 also led to hundreds of thousands of arrivals, straining an already overheated housing market.
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