By Omid Ghoreishi
Contributing Writer
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he will resign as prime minister and Liberal leader after a replacement is chosen. He also asked Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to prorogue Parliament until March 24, a request Simon granted.
“Last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I’m sharing with you today. I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process. Last night, I asked the president of the Liberal Party to begin that process,” Trudeau said on Monday.
Trudeau made the announcement after weeks of turmoil within the Liberal caucus, with many MPs publicly calling for his resignation amid declining poll numbers.
Trudeau said he wanted to stay on for the next election, which will be held this year, to compete against Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives who have been surging in the polls, but said the internal conflict in the Liberal Party has made it impossible for him to continue as leader.
“I am not someone who backs away from a fight, particularly when a fight is as important as this one is, but I have always been driven by my love for Canada,” he said.
“Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election, and it has become obvious to me with the internal battles that I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election.”
In reviewing his tenure as prime minister since 2015, Trudeau mentioned the economy and trade with the United States, governing the country through the pandemic, working on indigenous reconciliation, support for Ukraine, and climate-change policies.
“Since 2015 I’ve fought for this country, for you, to strengthen and grow the middle class. … We rallied to support each other through the pandemic, to advance reconciliation, to defend free trade on this continent, to stand strong with Ukraine and our democracy, and to fight climate change and get our economy ready for the future,” he said.
He said one regret he has is not changing the electoral system in Canada, “so that people could simply choose a second choice or a third choice on the same ballot.” The Liberals had made an election campaign promise in 2015 to reform the electoral system, with Trudeau saying he wanted to change Canada’s first-past-the-post system.
Trudeau said on Monday that he will stay a “part of a progressive movement that will seek out a better future and for Canadians,” and that the next leader chosen by the party will carry “the progressive Liberal standard” into the next election.
When asked why he isn’t calling an election immediately as requested by opposition parties, Trudeau said he decided to ask the governor general to prorogue Parliament until March 24 because he wanted to both reset the Parliament after it had been “paralyzed for months,” and to also reduce “polarization” by his resignation announcement.
The Conservatives led a filibuster of House of Commons proceedings during the fall sitting over the government not fully complying with a House order to hand over all federal green fund scandal documents to the RCMP. The Liberals cite privacy concerns for their refusal to hand over the fully unredacted documents.
“The reset that we have is actually two parts. One is the prorogation, but the other part is recognizing that removing me from the equation as the leader who will fight the next election for the Liberal Party should also decrease the level of polarization that we’re seeing right now,” Trudeau said.
The Conservatives have been critical of Trudeau proroguing the Parliament, saying it’s meant to give the Liberals a chance to organize for a leadership race instead of having an earlier election triggered by a vote of non-confidence after Parliament resumes on Jan. 27.
“A lame duck, Liberal insider selected Prime Minister would be tasked with addressing multiple crises of unaffordability, crime, and tariffs,” Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said in an online post.
The next federal election has to take place on or before Oct. 20.
