Justin Trudeau resigns after nine years in office as Liberals force him out

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is resigning after more than nine years in office, citing low popularity ratings and a revolt within his political party. 

Trudeau, 53, the longest-serving leader of any Group of Seven country, announced Monday that he will stand aside as leader of the governing Liberal Party. He will stay prime minister until a new leader is chosen, at which time parliament will be halted until March 24. 

Trudeau, 53, who has been the leader of the governing Liberal Party for the longest, announced on Monday that he intends to resign.

Kamara Morozuk/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The winner of the Liberal leadership contest will become Canada's 24th prime minister and will have to immediately prepare for an election, which the Conservative Party is widely expected to win, according to public opinion surveys. 

A nationwide vote is due in October, but it is likely to happen sooner. The three largest opposition parties in parliament have said that they would support a resolution of no confidence in the administration. If they carry out their threat, they will destabilize the administration and spark an election campaign. 

Trudeau's political future has been uncertain for months, as he has been unable to reverse a decline in his party's ratings that began when an inflation shock and the subsequent increase in interest rates took a toll on Canadian consumers. 

With his resignation, he becomes the latest advanced-economy leader to lose power. US President Joe Biden was forced to withdraw his reelection bid, Rishi Sunak's party suffered a humiliating setback in the UK general election, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appeared to be losing an upcoming vote.  

Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau's long-term deputy prime minister and finance minister, delivered the deadly blow. She was formerly one of his closest friends, but on December 16, she surprised the nation by posting a caustic resignation letter in which she obliquely attacked him for "costly political gimmicks" at a time when Canada is preparing for a probable trade war with the United States.

Freeland's departure sparked already simmering dissatisfaction among Trudeau's party. Dozens of elected members of his own caucus openly and privately urged him to run in the face of bleak polling. 

Potential Liberal leadership contenders include Freeland; Dominic LeBlanc, Trudeau's boyhood friend and Freeland's replacement as finance minister; Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly; and Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England. Carney has been active in Liberal politics after his return to Canada in 2020, despite having never ran for public office before. He is chairman of both Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. and Bloomberg Inc. 

The contest may potentially lure non-federal politicians, such as former British Columbia Premier Christy Clark. 

Politics has always been Justin Trudeau's destiny. His first home, in reality, was the prime minister's official residence: he was born during the first of his father's four stints as Canada's highest political official. 

When Trudeau took over the Liberal Party's leadership in 2013, it was still reeling from its worst-ever political setback in 2011, having lost progressive voters to the left-wing New Democratic Party. Trudeau surrounded himself with youthful advisers and developed plans to legalize recreational marijuana, impose a national carbon price, achieve reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and invest billions of dollars in infrastructure.

He pledged broader economic policies, including budget deficits, as well as inequality-reduction plans.

With a well-known name and a knack for retail politics, he packed rally halls and projected an optimistic perspective, which he dubbed "sunny ways." By election day in October 2015, he had propelled the Liberals from third place to a historic win, aided by significant support among younger voters. 

He was the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history. When he introduced his first cabinet, it had an equal number of men and women. When asked why, he responded, "Because it's 2015."

Governing was more difficult than winning. Oil prices fell in the year leading up to Trudeau's win, damaging Canada's economy. Then Donald Trump was elected, and he threatened to scrap the North American Free Trade Agreement, which had grown vital to the Canadian market since the 1980s.

Trudeau asked his trusty deputy, Freeland, to negotiate with the Trump administration. One of his most significant achievements as prime minister was the 2018 deal, which preserved most of the original trade agreement.

However, as Trudeau prepared to seek for a second term in 2019, his administration was hit by an ethical crisis. SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., one of Canada's top engineering corporations and a major employer in Trudeau's hometown of Montreal, has been charged with fraud and corruption. Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould openly accused key members of the government, including Trudeau's staff, of improperly pressing her to sign an agreement that would end the accusations.

Trudeau won the October 2019 election, but the Liberals lost their legislative majority and came in second to the Conservatives in the popular vote. The Covid epidemic and its repercussions would shape much of his later life. 

With the economy in freefall in 2020, the government swiftly implemented major welfare programs, resulting in the greatest budget deficits in Canadian history. Once vaccinations were available, Trudeau promoted them aggressively before calling a snap election in the summer of 2021, during which vaccine requirements were a contentious subject. Despite winning the most seats, the Liberals lost the popular vote to the Conservatives.

Anger over the government's Covid laws sparked protests in Ottawa and other locations in the winter of 2022. A convoy of trucks seized Canada's capital city for three weeks, while other demonstrators stopped a crucial bridge between Ontario and Michigan. Trudeau used emergency powers to drive them out. A judge eventually determined that the move was an overreach.

Although vaccine restrictions were lifted, the pandemic resulted in rising inflation and interest rates, a worldwide phenomenon fueled in part by supply-chain disruptions and Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Canadian central bank began on one of its most fast rate-hiking cycles in history. Many homeowners' mortgage payments increased dramatically. Rents increased as well.

Cost-of-living issues swiftly overwhelmed Trudeau, despite his government's extension of the social safety net with a child benefit, subsidized daycare, and federal dental care. 

Some analysts accused the government of leaving the epidemic expenditure faucets running for too long while failing to guarantee that house building kept up with rising levels of immigration. Trudeau made a stunning immigration U-turn in 2024, attempting to halt population growth. 

Meanwhile, the Conservatives put their house in order. After three straight defeats, they picked a right-wing leader with social media savvy: Pierre Poilievre, 45. He concentrated on a limited number of economic topics, attacking Trudeau on housing and other affordability concerns and fueling opposition to the Liberals' carbon price.

Voters began turning dramatically against Trudeau in mid-2023, and he has since been unable to overcome a double-digit polling lead over Poilievre. In 2024, Liberals lost special elections in once-safe Toronto and Montreal districts, as well as a British Columbia swing seat, highlighting the shift in public opinion.

The New Democratic Party, which had committed in early 2022 to support the administration on critical parliamentary votes, backed out of the arrangement in September. FA