Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to a shopper in a Montreal grocery store late last year. Photo: Twitter/X.
Justin Trudeau is resigning as Canadian Prime Minister and as leader of that country’s ruling left-leaning Liberal Party.
“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its new leader,” the 53-year-old leader told a news conference in Ottawa on Monday (Canadian time).
Canada’s parliament will be suspended until March 24 while a new party leader is chosen, he also told the news conference.
“I care deeply about this country and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interests of Canadians. The fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, parliament has been paralyzed for months after what has been the longest session of a minority parliament in Canadian history,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau led the party for 11 years and served as PM for nine but faced a mounting set of crises, from his handling of US President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats to the resignation of key allies and disastrous opinion polls.
His government was also surprised late last year by the resignation of Deputy PM and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland hours before she was due to deliver her annual fiscal update.
EARLIER REPORT: Trudeau under pressure amid Trump trolling
A general election is due to be held later this year that he was widely expected to lose, according to American media outlet CNN.
The country also faces the serious prospect of huge tariffs to be levied by the new Trump administration; Trump, who is set to return to the White House on January 20, said he will impose a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports into the US.
The next American president also belittled Trudeau and Canada on social media by referring to the prime minister as the “governor” of the “great (US) state of Canada”.
CNN has named possible replacements as the former governor of both the Bank of England and Bank of Canada Mark Carney, foreign minister Melanie Joly and Freeland.
ALBANESE REACTS
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he wishes Trudeau well.
“Justin Trudeau has had a good relationship with Australia under both my government and the former Coalition Government,” he said.
“I regard (him) as a friend, and I wish him well. He served Canada well for a long period of time.”
