Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces resignation
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he will step down as his party’s leader months ahead of a major election.
After ten years in power, the incumbent PM was contending with abysmal opinion polls for the Liberal Party and discontent among his own MPs.
The upcoming election, due by October 20, is widely predicted to result in a victory for the Conservatives led by Pierre Poilievre.
Trudeau said ‘internal battles’ mean he ‘cannot be the best option’ to lead his party in the vote.
He will remain as prime minister until a new leader for the Liberals is chosen.
In a speech outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, he confirmed parliament would be prorogued until March 24 to allow for the process of finding a replacement.
The son of previous Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau may not have matched his father’s 15 years in office, but he has outlasted almost every other Western leader who was in power when he started his term.
They included Barack Obama in the US, David Cameron in the UK, Angela Merkel in Germany, and Francois Hollande in France.
Over his decade-long term, Trudeau legalised assisted dying and recreational cannabis in Canada and introduced an assault weapons ban after 22 people were killed in a Nova Scotia shooting spree.
He also came under criticism after several pictures of him in blackface emerged in 2019, and he maintained a complex but largely cordial relationship with US President Donald Trump.
Opposition to the PM grew last year after a series of by-election defeats, culminating last month with the resignation of his Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, who also served as deputy prime minister.
Her exit came on the same day she was due to deliver the government’s autumn economic update, dealing a major blow to Trudeau.
Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail reported on Sunday that he was expected to announce he was stepping down ahead of a caucus meeting on Wednesday.
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