Amidst widespread unpopularity, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced his resignation as the country's Prime Minister and the head of the Liberal Party on Monday (January 6). This precedes a party-wide caucus slated to be held on Wednesday, according to a report in Canadian newspaper The Globe and The Mail. He is expected to remain in the post until the party elects a successor to the top post. Addressing a press conference, 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." This move seems to be timed to ensure the party presents some semblance of stability ahead of the impending parliamentary election. Current state of Canadian politics Trudeau’s Liberal government already stood on shaky ground, having won the last election in 2021 with the support of the Jagmeet Singh-led left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) in an agreement meant to last till September 2025. Essentially, the Liberals had amassed seats just shy of the parliamentary majority to form a government and the NDP agreed to support it through confidence motions and budget votes. In turn, the Liberal government promised to bat for key NDP policy issues, such as free dental care, pharma-care legislation, and efforts to protect childcare and workers. However, the NDP withdrew its support from the government last September, with party leader Jagmeet Singh criticising Trudeau for failing to effectively challenge the opposition Conservative Party. Throwing his hat into the ring as a potential prime minister candidate, Singh then defended this decision as preparation to challenge potential “Conservative cuts” in healthcare and other kinds of public -funded services. The Conservatives, led by Pierre Poilievre, a right-wing populist leader, are currently projected to win the upcoming parliamentary election. On December 20, Singh announced he would introduce a no-confidence vote to oust the Liberals from power, making an early election imminent. Earlier in October too, nearly two dozen MPs signed a letter calling for Trudeau’s resignation. The Liberals witnessed historically low approval ratings, with an Ipsos survey rating it at 33%, behind the Conservatives at 45%. Trudeau’s own approval rating hit an all-time low of 26% in October 2024 from 54% in February 2021. In recent years, the Liberal Party has presided over rising political divisiveness and inflationary pressures. A key point of contention has been the soaring housing crisis, characterised by spiralling house prices and increasing homelessness. On December 16, Trudeau’s trusted deputy and finance minister Chrystia Freeland resigned from the post hours before her scheduled fall economic update to the parliament. In her resignation letter, Freeland said the PM “no longer wanted” her to serve as the finance minister and had offered her a different cabinet post. Her resignation marks the latest of a massive exodus in the current cabinet, which has seen eight ministers exit in recent months. There has also been widespread concern about Trudeau’s ability to handle the fallout of impending economic protectionism from the US, once Trump ascends to presidency later this month. What happens next for the Liberals? In the press conference, Trudeau announced that the parliament would be prorogued until March 24. This measure effectively suspends parliament without its immediate dissolution. Trudeau may have chosen to do so in the interest of continuing current government policy, and bypass the no-confidence vote. “I'm a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians.And the fact is, despite best efforts to work through it, Parliament has been paralyzed for months.That's why this morning I advised the Governor-General that we need a new session of Parliament. She has granted this request and the House will now be prorogued until March 24th,” he said. He justified his decision to not call for immediate elections, saying it was time the parliament saw a reset, amidst “obstruction, filibustering and a total lack of productivity” for the past several months. If the confidence vote had proceeded later this month, the Liberal Party was poised to lose without the NDP’s support. The government would need the support of a majority of the 338 members in the House of Commons to survive a confidence vote, which the Liberal Party is currently short of. (This is an updated version of an explainer published in December 2024)
