Justin Trudeau announces resignation after cabinet revolt
Justin Tredau, the Canadian Prime Minister, has announced that he will step down after almost a decade in power following a cabinet revolt.
He said he made up his mind after discussing his future over dinner with his children on Sunday evening.
Announcing his resignation outside his residence at Rideau Cottage, Trudeau said he’s a fighter and says he will “always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians”.
“But… parliament has been paralysed for months,” he said.
“I have always been driven by my love for Canada, my desire to serve Canadians…and Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election,” Trudeau said.
“It is obvious to me that I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election.”
He has suspended parliament until March 24, and he will resign once the Liberal Party finds a successor.
His announcement comes ahead of a general election later this year, which his party was expected to lose in favour of the official opposition Conservatives.
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Trudeau, who led his party for 11 years, faced calls to quit from his own MPs following negative opinion polling
Additional pressure piled on when his Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned last month, warning of a “coming tariff war” with the US under Donald Trump‘s incoming administration.
In her resignation letter, Freeland stated she and Trudeau had been “at odds about the best path forward for Canada” in recent weeks.
“Our country is facing a grave challenge”, she wrote, emphasising the need to keep “fiscal powder dry” for a potential tariff conflict.
The President-elect has mocked his former-counterpart, suggesting that he would make Canada a US state. As pressure rose on the PM, Trudeau eventually announced the country would engage in a Trump-style crackdown on immigration.
And just last week, Canada’s newly appointed Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc announced that a $1.3bn slate of new measures “will secure our border against the flow of illegal drugs and irregular migration.”
Following Freeland’s resignation, Trudeau announced a major shake-up to his cabinet, changing a third of his team in a bid to settle the political turmoil. This resulted in a mini revolt by 24 of his MPs.
The Conservatives, which have been performing well in the polls for almost a year, have promised to move a motion of non-confidence in the Liberal government as soon as possible.