Forty-three-year-old Trudeau’s positive political message and energetic personality had helped the Liberals win a historic majority in Parliament in 2015.
On Monday (January 6), Justin Trudeau announced that he would step down as both Canada’s Prime Minister and the leader of the Liberal Party. He has faced growing pressure to resign for months now due to his low approval ratings and declining support within the party. The Liberal Party is also expected to suffer a major loss in the parliamentary elections later this year.
Forty-three-year-old Trudeau’s positive political message and energetic personality had helped the Liberals win a historic majority in Parliament in 2015. But, at 53 years of age, Trudeau’s decision marks a change from his earlier position. In the past, he had firmly stated—both publicly and in private—that he would lead the Liberals in the next election against Pierre Poilievre’s leading Conservative Party.
It is difficult for Trudeau to ignore the harsh reality of the pressures he has been dealing with. His approval ratings have plummeted sharply and his party has lost several by-elections. The tipping point might have come when his former deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, criticized his policies and resigned her Cabinet post in December 2024.
Support for the Liberal Party has dropped to just 16%, which would be the worst election result in the party’s 157-year history. The Indian Express quoted veteran Canadian journalist Terry Milewski on Monday night as saying that, for the preceding couple of years, pollsters had been predicting that Trudeau’s time was up.
In the past 50 years, no Canadian Prime Minister has managed to win a third term in a row. In recent years, leaders in this position seem to lose momentum after being in power for about 8-9 years. According to Milewski, people tend to tire of them after roughly nine years.
Canada’s Economic Struggles
Many people have grown frustrated with Trudeau because of the country’s economic struggles. During his second term, Canada’s economy has not grown much. More people are out of work and wages have not increased enough to keep up with the rising cost of living caused by record-high inflation. On top of that, housing has become so expensive that many Canadians are finding it harder to afford a place to live. These problems have left many people feeling worried and dissatisfied.
Inflation could ruin a government, Gerald Butts, political consultant with the Eurasia Group and former top adviser to Trudeau until 2019, told Bloomberg in an interview. As with many other governments, Trudeau’s dispensation was slow to realize that inflation was a real problem and did not act quickly enough to address it, he said.
Inflation has slowed down since its peak in 2022, but several political scandals have hurt Trudeau’s popularity with the public.
All About Trudeau’s Scandals
In 2016, Justin Trudeau and his family vacationed on the Aga Khan’s private island and, in 2017, Canada’s ethics commissioner criticized Justin Trudeau for accepting gifts, such as the vacation and rides on a private helicopter.
Then, in 2020, it was revealed that Trudeau’s family had been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by WE Charity—a Canadian non-profit organization focussed on youth empowerment and global change. Known for ‘WE Day’ and school programmes, it shut down in 2020 after financial and political controversies. This happened around the same time that his government gave the charity a contract worth C$19.5 million.
In 2021, Justin Trudeau missed Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation—a day to honour indigenous children who died in residential schools and support their survivors. The indigenous children had died from abuse, neglect and disease in residential schools. Instead of attending events to mark this important day, he went on a surfing trip with his family, which upset many people. This was widely criticized.
The government’s choice to let in many migrants lost support when a big rise in immigration after the pandemic overwhelmed the country. Trudeau has made some changes to reduce immigration, but it may be too late and not enough to fix the growing problems.
Trudeau leads a minority government since his party won only 153 out of 338 seats in the last election. He has relied on support from smaller parties—especially the Bloc Québécois and Jagmeet Singh’s New Democratic Party (NDP)—to stay in power.
For several months now, there has been growing pressure within the Liberal Party for Trudeau to step down as Prime Minister. In October, nearly 20 Liberal backbenchers—members of Parliament who are not part of the government’s Cabinet or hold senior positions—signed a letter asking him to resign as Prime Minister.
Then, in mid-December, Chrystia Freeland—Trudeau’s close ally, deputy and Canada’s finance minister—stepped down. She politely raised concerns about whether Trudeau was capable of handling such challenges as a potential second Donald Trump presidency in the US. At least 21 Liberal lawmakers have openly asked for Trudeau to step down, especially after Freeland announced her resignation on December 16, 2024. Many of them shared their worries following her departure.
Trudeau’s MPs have been unsure about his leadership for a long time and it is not just the ones who signed the letter. In a Parliament with only 153 Liberal MPs, losing support from even a few can make it impossible to stay in power. That is how the parliamentary system works—if your MPs turn against you, your leadership is over. As Milewski explained, if Trudeau had not quit on his own, he would have been pushed out.
Big Question: What Comes Next?
Trudeau will hold his party position until the Liberals choose a new leader to replace him. On Monday, he announced that the Governor-General, Mary Simon, who represents King Charles III in Canada, had agreed to prorogue Parliament—temporarily stopping all parliamentary activities and pause all work without officially dissolving the House of Commons.
Parliament will remain on hold until March 24. This pause gives the Liberal Party time to focus on selecting their new leader while still keeping important government activities running. When Parliament starts session again, the Liberal government will face a quick challenge. A confidence vote, likely to happen shortly after the session begins, will decide if the Liberals can stay in power.
Since the Liberals have a minority government and the Opposition wants to remove them from power, a federal election to choose a new government is very much on the cards. Canada’s next general election, required by law to happen by October, could be held earlier if the Opposition parties push for a vote, possibly as soon as May.
Even if th
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