Canada PM Justin Trudeau to announce resignation as early as this week: report

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce his resignation, but he has not made a final decision, a person familiar with Trudeau’s thinking said on Sunday (Monday AEDT), a move that would trigger a race to replace him as Canada’s leader.

The comment came after The Globe and Mail reported that Trudeau was likely to step down as early as Monday as leader of the country’s ruling Liberal Party after nine years in office.

The source requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.

Trudeau’s departure would leave the party without a permanent head at a time when polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October.

Sources told The Globe and Mail that they did not know definitely when Trudeau would announce his plans to leave but said they expected it would happen before an emergency meeting of Liberal legislators on Wednesday.

An increasing number of Liberal parliamentarians, alarmed by a series of gloomy polls, have publicly urged Trudeau to quit.

The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. The prime minister’s regularly published schedule for Monday said he would participate virtually in a cabinet committee meeting on Canada-US relations.

It remains unclear whether Trudeau would leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new Liberal leader was selected, The Globe and Mail report added.

Trudeau took over as Liberal leader in 2013 when the party was in deep trouble and has been reduced to third place in the House of Commons for the first time.

If he does resign, it would be likely to spur fresh calls for a quick election to put in place a stable government able to deal with the administration of President-elect Donald Trump for the next four years.

The prime minister has discussed with Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc whether he would be willing to step in as interim leader and prime minister, one source told the newspaper, adding that this would be unworkable if LeBlanc planned to run for the leadership.

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 calls for him to step aside have grown since December when Trudeau tried to demote finance minister Chrystia Freeland, one of his closest cabinet allies, after she pushed back against his proposals for more spending.

Freeland quit instead and penned a letter accusing Trudeau of “political gimmicks” rather than focusing on what was best for the country.

Trudeau 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 climate change.

But the everyday realities of governing gradually wore him down and, like many Western leaders, the need to deal with the effects of the pandemic ate up much of his time.

Although Ottawa 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 led to hundreds of thousands of arrivals, straining an already overheated housing market.

Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.