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Trudeau’s decision to stay on until a successor is chosen means the party will not be left in the hands of an unelected interim leader at a time when polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October.
The move is a political gamble for the Liberal Party and for Trudeau, who could now remain in office for months while a leadership contest is held.
The political upheaval comes at a difficult moment for Canada.
It means Trudeau will remain prime minister as US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Trump has threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian products if Canada does not stem what he calls a flow of migrants and drugs in the United States – even though far fewer of each cross into the US from Canada than from Mexico.
Justin Trudeau has become increasingly isolated in recent months. His party continues to dive in the polls and it looks almost certain to lose the next election.Credit: Bloomberg
He has also taken a bizarre stance on social media in calling for the annexation of Canada and for it to become an American state, mocking Trudeau as a “governor”.
Trudeau, 53, was celebrated for returning the country to its liberal past when he was elected in 2015, He went on to win re-election twice, becoming one of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers.
However, he became unpopular following the COVID pandemic and as the economy suffered a cost-of-living crisis. His popularity started dipping two years ago amid public anger over high prices and a housing shortage. His fortunes never recovered.
An increasing number of Liberal parliamentarians, alarmed by a series of gloomy polls, have publicly urged Trudeau to quit.
A worry for the Liberals was that the threat by opposition parties to bring down the government would come to fruition before the leadership race was over, leaving Trudeau to lead the party into the next election. The suspension of parliament buys the party time to prevent that scenario.
Even so, polls suggest that the Liberals would lose an election regardless of the leader or the timing of the vote.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, a career politician, looks on track to take power. He rose to prominence in early 2022 when he strongly supported truck drivers who took over the centre of Ottawa as part of a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
AP, Reuters
