Justin Trudeau announces his resignation after almost a decade as Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, announced his resignation this Monday after his loss of popularity and a crisis within his Government that has left him politically weakened. Trudeau, who has led the Government of Canada for almost a decade, will remain in office until his group appoints a new leader. His resignation marks the end of an era in the middle of an election year. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party, which clearly leads the polls, has called for early elections. The elections must be held in October at the latest.

“Last night, during dinner, I told my children about the decision that I share with you today. “I intend to resign as party leader and as prime minister after the party elects its next leader through a robust national competitive process,” Trudeau said outside his red brick Rideau Cottage residence in Ottawa. the capital of the country. “Last night I asked the president of the Liberal Party to start that process. “This country deserves a real option in the next elections, and it has become clear to me that if I have to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in those elections,” he added.

“It’s time for a reset. “It is time for the temperature to drop, for people to have a new start in Parliament,” he said. Trudeau has appeared in a coat at 11 degrees below zero, but he was referring to the political temperature. The Liberal leader has argued that withdrawing from the equation should help reduce polarization and unblock the functioning of Parliament. Furthermore, he believes that his resignation will place his party in better conditions to approach the elections, despite the short time that his replacement may be in office. Trudeau has criticized the dark and misguided vision of Canada that he believes Poilievre, the conservative leader, has.

“Since 2015 I have fought for this country, for you, to strengthen and grow the middle class,” said the still prime minister. “For coming together to support each other during the pandemic, to advance reconciliation, to defend free trade on this continent, to stand firm with Ukraine and our democracy and to fight climate change and prepare our economy for the future. We are at a critical moment in the world,” he said in defense of his management in a speech in English and French.

The Canadian politician, who assumed leadership of his party in April 2013, led the Liberals to power in October 2015 with a progressive agenda that promoted women’s rights and a promise to fight climate change. His program and his personal appeal seduced an electorate that once again gave victory to the liberals in 2019 and in the early elections of September 2021, but without a sufficient majority to govern alone.

Calls for him to resign had increased since December, when Trudeau tried to remove Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of his closest allies, after she opposed his proposals to increase spending. Freeland resigned, further weakening the position of the head of government. The fired minister wrote a letter accusing Trudeau of “political tricks” instead of focusing on what was best for the country.

Trudeau, 53, had until then been able to dodge pressure from liberal lawmakers concerned about the polls. However, in recent weeks, at least two dozen deputies and several regional party groups, including those in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario, had called for his resignation.

Opposition parties had promised no-confidence motions to bring down the Trudeau government in Parliament. However, along with his resignation, the prime minister has delayed the new session until March 24, to allow time for the appointment of a replacement. Even so, it is very difficult for Trudeau’s replacement to be able to exhaust the legislature and reach the October deadline for the elections. Freeland herself; the new Finance Minister, Dominic LeBlanc, and former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney are possible candidates to succeed him.

Added to the crisis within the Trudeau Government was the humiliation by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, who refers to him as the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada,” as if it were part of the United States. Joined. Trump threatened his northern neighbor with imposing 25% tariffs on all imports if he did not stop the passage of drugs and immigrants across his border, after which Trudeau urgently traveled to Mar-a-Lago, the Republican’s mansion. in Palm Beach (Florida), to try to direct the situation. The United States is the destination for three-quarters of Canadian exports.

Like other Western countries, Canada devoted an enormous amount of public spending to combating the effects of the pandemic, ballooning the deficit and debt. However, the sharp rise in prices in recent years, also a global phenomenon, eroded its popularity, hit especially by the overheating of the real estate market, under pressure from the massive arrival of immigrants. The Trudeau Government imposed restrictions on home purchases by foreigners, but that did not solve the problem.

The conservative Poilievre attacked Trudeau in a video broadcast on the social network X shortly after the prime minister’s intervention. “Canadians, desperate to turn the page on this dark chapter in our history, may be relieved today that Justin Trudeau is finally leaving. But what has really changed?” he asked. Poilievre has stressed that all candidates to succeed him have supported his policies and has called for early elections. The favorite to win the next elections has criticized “the inflationary carbon tax”, the “lack of control of spending, debt and immigration”, its housing policies and the increase in crime, the axes of its opposition to the Government.

The Liberals are abandoning Trudeau, he maintains, because “he is no longer popular enough to win an election and keep them in power.” “They want to protect their pensions and their salary by hiding their hated leader under the rug months before an election to deceive you and then do it again,” he said. “Everything is out of control, and now the Government is out of control. “This cannot continue like this,” he said before asking for an early election.

“We need a ‘carbon tax election’ now to choose between the expensive liberal coalition that taxes your food, punishes your job, doubles the cost of your housing and unleashes crime and drugs on your community, or the conservatives with common sense “They are going to lower taxes, build homes, fix the budget and put an end to crime,” he added, underlining his motto of Canada First, an imitation of America First of Trump with whom, like the Republican, he hopes to achieve power.

Trump has not missed the opportunity to drive his own nail into Trudeau’s political coffin and has once again brought out his imperialist desires with his idea of ​​Canada integrating into the United States. “Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st State,” he wrote on Truth, his social network. “The United States can no longer suffer the enormous Trade Deficits and Subsidies that Canada needs to stay afloat. Justin Trudeau knew it and resigned. If Canada merged with the United States, there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go down a lot, and they would be COMPLETELY SECURED from the threat of Russian and Chinese Ships that constantly surround them. Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!”, he added.