He made the announcement on Jan. 6 after weeks of turmoil within the Liberal caucus and amid declining poll numbers
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes an announcement outside Rideau Cottage in Ottawa on Jan.6, 2025. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
1/6/2025
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 Jan. 6.
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.”
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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.
Trudeau said he will stay a “part of a progressive movement that will seek out a better future and for Canadians,” and mentioned that the next leader chosen by the party will carry “the progressive Liberal standard” into the next election.
Low Polling, Turmoil
Calls for Trudeau’s resignation had escalated after the high-profile resignation of Chrystia Freeland as deputy prime minister and minister of finance on Dec. 16. Freeland resigned after Trudeau had informed her that she would be shuffled to another cabinet position. In her resignation letter, she raised concerns about government expenditures at a time of financial challenges faced by the country.
Trudeau had said he’d take time over the holidays to reflect and decide on his future.
The public calls from within caucus for Trudeau’s ouster first began to surface over the summer after the Liberals lost the longtime stronghold of Toronto-St.Paul’s to the Conservatives in a byelection, as support in the polls for the Liberals had been waning for months.
The byelection defeats in previously Liberal-held seats were repeated in Montreal’s LaSalle-Émard-Verdun riding in September, where the Bloc Québécois won, and in B.C.’s Cloverdale-Langley City byelection in December, where the Conservatives won in a landslide.
The defeats came as the Conservatives have been holding a double-digit advantage over the Liberals in the polls in the past year. A Jan. 3 poll by Angus Reid showed that support for the Liberals with Trudeau as leader has plunged to 13 percent.
Leadership Contenders
Among leadership contenders considered in the Angus Reid survey, support for the Liberals rose to 21 percent if Freeland were to become the leader.
Others whose names have been mentioned as possible leadership contenders include Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, Transportation Minister Anita Anand, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney, and former B.C. Premier Christy Clark.
The developments come as incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has said he’ll impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian imports unless the country takes action to secure the border to stop the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants to the United States.
Meanwhile, following the resignation of Freeland from cabinet, the NDP has joined the other opposition parties in saying it intends to bring down the minority Liberal government in a vote of non-confidence.
The NDP previously had a supply-and-confidence agreement with the Liberals, under which it supported the Liberals on key votes in exchange for certain legislation such as national dental care and pharmacare programs. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh broke the agreement in September, but the party continued to vote with the Liberals on confidence motions.
Prime Minister Since 2015
Trudeau, the 53-year-old scion of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, studied literature at McGill University, graduating in 1994, and education at the University of British Columbia, graduating in 1998.
He worked as a teacher for several years before following in his father’s footsteps to enter politics, becoming a Liberal MP in 2008 and representing the riding of Papineau in Montreal.
Trudeau became Liberal leader in 2013, and went on to revive the party from third place to forming government in 2015, winning a majority against the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.
His majority government was reduced to a minority in the 2019 election, and remained more or less the same after the pandemic election of 2021.
With nine years at the helm, Trudeau is one of Canada’s longer-serving prime ministers in terms of time in office, ranking seventh so far among the 23 who have held office since 1867.
This is a developing story, updates will follow.
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