Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday announced his intention to step down as the premier and the leader of his party.
He said he would stay on in his post until the ruling Liberal Party chose a replacement for him.
Trudeau made his remarks in a live address.
Trudeau’s popularity has waned in recent months, with his government narrowly surviving a series of no-confidence votes and critics calling for his resignation.
He has vowed to stay on to guide the Liberals to elections scheduled for October 2025, but has faced further pressure from US incoming president, Donald Trump, who has threatened a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland quit in December after disagreeing with Trudeau over how to respond to Trump’s apparent plan, in the first open dissent against the prime minister within his cabinet.
Later that month, Trudeau announced a major shakeup to his cabinet — changing one-third of his team in a bid to settle the political turmoil.
In November, he traveled to Florida to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in a bid to head off a trade war.
But since then the president-elect has also landed humiliating blows against Trudeau on social media, repeatedly calling him “governor” of Canada and declaring that the United States’ northern neighbor becoming the 51st US state is a “great idea.”
Trudeau swept to power in 2015, with a mop of dark curly hair and confident swagger, and led the Liberals to two more ballot box victories in 2019 and 2021.
But he now trails his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, by 20 points in public opinion polls.
Coming late to politics after working as a snowboard instructor, bartender, bouncer and teacher, Trudeau was first elected in 2008 to the House of Commons to represent a working-class Montreal neighborhood.
In his first two terms as prime minister, he brought in Senate reforms, signed a new trade deal with the United States and introduced a carbon tax to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The married father of three also legalised cannabis, held a public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and passed legislation permitting medically assisted suicide.
