By Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Ian Austen
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada announced Monday that he would step down as Liberal Party leader and prime minister, a decision that means Canada will have a new leader once his party picks a new head through a nationwide election.
“Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians,” Trudeau said as he announced his decision in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital. His resignation sets off a succession battle to replace him after roughly a decade at the helm of both the party and the country.
The upheaval comes as the country is grappling with how best to deal with President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to impose crippling tariffs on all imports from Canada on his first day in office. Canada and the United States are each other’s biggest trading partners.
Trudeau visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in late November and his government has been in talks to address the president-elect’s concerns about border security, in hopes that he will reconsider his tariff threat.
Trudeau has faced weeks of mounting pressure from inside his party’s ranks.
In December, Trudeau’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, abruptly stepped down in a stinging rebuke of his leadership and stewardship of the country. Her resignation incited a growing chorus of voices from Liberal parliamentarians asking him to step aside for the sake of the party, and let someone else lead the Liberal Party against the Conservatives in general elections.
Here’s what else to know:
— Election timetable: The elections would likely be contested sometime in the spring, according to experts. General elections need to be held by October, in line with Canada’s electoral rules.
— A dark vision: Trudeau criticized the leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, as having a bleak outlook for Canada. Instead, he said, the country needed an optimistic viewpoint and believed his party needed a different leader to confront Poilievre in the upcoming federal elections.
— End of an era: Trudeau has been in power since 2015, having resuscitated the Liberals, who had crashed electorally before he took over in 2013. But he has become deeply unpopular: According to a poll released last month by Ipsos, 73% of Canadians — including 43% of Liberal voters — believed he should step down as party leader.
— Falling confidence: Freeland, who had been Trudeau’s most steadfast lieutenant through multiple crises, including the pandemic and disagreements with the first Trump administration, said she no longer had confidence in his leadership.