Trudeau’s resignation. Canadian Division

Trudeau decided to announce his resignation ahead of the Liberal Party’s national convention, which begins Wednesday.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that he will step down as leader of the ruling Liberal Party, but will remain as head of government until the Liberals choose a new leader. His decision to resign was preceded by a decline in the party’s popularity and open conflicts with other leading liberals.

Political crisis

Canadian media sources explained that Trudeau decided to announce his resignation ahead of the Liberal Party’s national convention, which begins on Wednesday. The issue of re-election of the party leadership will be decided there, and Trudeau is believed to want to avoid a situation where his own party members would remove him from his position as leader.

The Liberals, who have a majority in the Parliament of Canada, with the approval of the Governor General (representing the British monarch), suspended Parliament until March 24 to give themselves time to elect a new leader. This is normal for Canadian political practice; Governments often take this step in times of political crisis.

Recently, the Liberal Party has dramatically lost popularity. Opinion polls predict his defeat in the general election, which will be held no later than October this year.

In announcing his resignation, Trudeau acknowledged that the country is divided, parliament has been virtually paralyzed for months, and the ruling party has been plagued by infighting.

Canada needs to breathe, and Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election, says Justin Trudeau.

Almost 10 years in power

Overall, he said he was satisfied with the results of his premiership. According to him, Canada has become a better version of the country he adopted in 2015.

He considers the main success of his government to be significant improvements in the economy, which, according to him, now works for everyone, and not just for a select few – there are fewer poor people in the country, and the level of poverty work has decreased. .

Trudeau led the party in 2013 and became prime minister in 2015 after the Liberals won that year’s parliamentary election.

Justin Trudeau then became Canada’s youngest Prime Minister in its history. He is a hereditary politician: his father Pierre Elliott Trudeau served as Prime Minister of Canada in 1968-79. and 1980-84

Rumors of Trudeau’s impending resignation have been swirling in Canadian political circles for weeks. Observers noted that in addition to the general decline in the ruling party’s rating, he personally lost the support of fellow party members and popularity among his colleagues.

Pressure on him from within the party has been building since last summer, after the Liberals suffered a historic Toronto by-election defeat to their Conservative rivals.

In terms of public opinion, as of December 2024, only 22% of Canadians said they approved of his leadership. This is the lowest number since he came to power in 2015.

Prime Minister of Ukraine?

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has long been considered among Trudeau’s possible successors. Freeland, a Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times in the 1990s, was known for his commitment to Ukraine: he was proud of his Ukrainian roots (his grandparents fled to western Ukraine after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and was fluent in Ukrainian (he also speaks Russian and Italian , along with Canada’s two official languages, English and French). Represents the Toronto constituency in Parliament. Freeland became Canada’s first female finance minister before abruptly resigning in December over disagreements with Trudeau over spending and how to deal with the threat of a trade war from US President-elect Donald Trump.