Justin Trudeau’s exit shuts down Parliament, starts the clock on spring election

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that he will resign, yielding to internal pressure for his ouster and starting the clock on a hasty Liberal leadership race and an expected spring federal election.

Standing alone outside his Rideau Cottage residence on a frigid winter morning, the 53-year-old leader said he still has the fight to lead the Liberal Party but it has become clear that his team is no longer behind him.

He said Governor-General Mary Simon had granted his request to prorogue Parliament until March 24. The move shuts down the work of the House of Commons and resets the entire legislative agenda, ensuring that the minority Liberal government can’t be defeated until at least that date.

“I am a fighter, and I am not someone who backs away from a fight, particularly when a fight is as important as this one is,” Mr. Trudeau 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.”

The fall of Justin Trudeau

Mr. Trudeau’s decision brings more uncertainty at an already precarious moment for the country.

Incoming U.S. president Donald Trump has pledged to level a 25-per-cent tariff on all Canadian imports – a move that could pitch the economy into a recession.

Mr. Trudeau’s leadership announcement ensures his position at the top as the new U.S. administration begins, something that was in doubt as some Liberal MPs demanded his immediate exit. At his press conference, he said the government would “protect Canadians in their interests and continue to fight for the economy.”

The government’s economic and political agenda, which has been at a standstill since the fall over the Liberals’ refusal to release documents demanded by the House, now appears scrapped entirely with prorogation. With that move, Mr. Trudeau has killed key pieces of legislation like the online harms bill, but also brought more disruption for businesses with items like the capital-gains tax hike now in doubt.

The Prime Minister had for months been adamant in public and private conversations that he would lead the Liberals into the next election against Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives.

But he capitulated after what began as a few sparks of internal revolt six months ago mushroomed into a full-scale crisis for his minority government by the end of 2024.

The final push for his exit was spurred by Chrystia Freeland’s public rebuke of the Prime Minister’s policies and politics as she quit his government hours before she was scheduled to deliver the government’s fall economic statement, in mid December. Mr. Trudeau had privately informed her days earlier that she would be removed as his finance minister and given a role overseeing Canada-U.S. relations but with no department, no money and no statutory authority.

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Mr. Trudeau declined Monday to address what had happened between them in their final meeting. Still, he described her as “an incredible political partner through just about everything we have done as a government and as a party over the past decade.”

The breakdown in the relationship between Mr. Trudeau and one of his closest allies led to a bigger revolt from Liberal MPs calling on the Prime Minister to resign. By Sunday, at least two dozen Liberal MPs had publicly demanded Mr. Trudeau quit and caucus had set a meeting for Wednesday with the expectation that Mr. Trudeau tell them whether he was leaving.

(Story continues below.)

In photos: Justin Trudeau’s political career

What happens next?

The Prime Minister has now pre-empted what was expected to be a messy standoff, with Wednesday’s meeting now expected to focus on the leadership race to come.

The Liberal Party’s recent internal turmoil followed other signs of a potentially disastrous result for Mr. Trudeau’s party in the next election. In the past six months, he suffered a spate of by-election losses, his popularity in public opinion surveys tumbled lower, and a quarter of his cabinet announced they were walking away.

The next federal election was scheduled for October, but is now likely to happen this spring.

Prorogation would be followed by a Throne Speech, and the subsequent vote is a confidence motion. The main opposition parties have all said they will vote down the government, and reiterated Monday that it doesn’t matter who is leading the Liberal Party at the time.

“They do not deserve another chance,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh at a news conference.

Mr. Poilievre said the country needs an immediate general election rather than a Liberal leadership race. His party sent out a fundraising pitch to members on that issue just hours after Mr. Trudeau made his announcement.

The Conservative Leader painted all Liberal MPs and potential leadership candidates with the same brush as Mr. Trudeau, arguing that they all supported the government’s policies until Canadians started to turn on the governing party.

“They want to protect their pensions and paycheques by sweeping their hated leader under the rug months before an election to trick you,” he said in a statement.

“The Liberals know how wrong this all is, that’s exactly why they shut down Parliament and paralyze government, all to save their own skins.”

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Mr. Trudeau made the right decision and agreed that an election must be held.

“The institution we are facing is the Liberal Party of Canada. It has been deeply transformed by Mr. Trudeau and there is no possible way for this party to become something else in a few weeks,” he said.

Explainer: What we know so far about Justin Trudeau’s resignation

The Conservatives have already signalled the slogan they’ll use to taint the new leader – “Just Like Justin,” a tag line they’ve applied to former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, one of the names in the mix for who might run for leadership. Late Monday, he released a statement saying that he is considering a bid to lead the party.

Mr. Trudeau had tried several times to recruit Mr. Carney, and the idea that he could replace Ms. Freeland as finance minister was part of what led to her departure. She, too, is considered in the running for the leadership, as are Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne.

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All issued statements Monday thanking Mr. Trudeau for his service.

The uncertainty around the timing of the next election means the Liberals will install a new leader who will face a tight deadline to organize a national campaign and set themselves apart from Mr. Trudeau. He said Monday, however, that his replacement can “absolutely” defeat Mr. Poilievre.

The Liberal Party said its national executive will meet this week to begin the leadership process. Caucus members were to receive a briefing on the rules later Monday, which as written suggest a timeline for a contest that would go past the March 24 end to prorogation.

The party did not clarify Monday if it would conduct the leadership race within the next three months.

How did we get here?

Mr. Trudeau, the oldest son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, was elected to the House of Commons in 2008 and then as party leader five years later.

He led the Liberals from third-place status in the Commons to a majority government in 2015, roundly defeated the Conservatives on a campaign promising a significant shift away from the policies of then-prime minister Stephen Harper, particularly on climate change and Indigenous reconciliation.

Headed into the 2019 election, however, the early shine of Mr. Trudeau’s government had been tarnished by ethical scandals and broken promises. The Liberals were reduced to a minority, and then saw their agenda thrown off course by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Mr. Trudeau sought a strengthened mandate by calling a snap election in 2021, voters returned the same result: a minority Liberal government with nearly identical seat counts for all parties.

That led to a supply-and-confidence deal with the New Democrats, which saw the NDP prop up the minority Liberals in exchange for action on key files such as pharmacare and dental care.

As Mr. Trudeau and the NDP began implementing their deal, in the fall of 2022, the Conservatives elected Mr. Poilievre as leader.

In the two years since, the long-time MP has led his party to a commanding lead in public-opinion polling through relentless attacks on Mr. Trudeau and his government, accusing them of being out of touch with the concerns of Canadians.

Amid cost-of-living pressures, Mr. Poilievre capitalized on the domestic inflation drivers of government spending and a housing shortage and laid the blame at Mr. Trudeau’s feet. He also argued that the Liberals’ consumer price on carbon was a compounding factor for it all.

The Liberals tried to fend off Mr. Poilievre’s attacks by touting policies such as their carbon-price rebates and national child-care program but failed to gain traction. Meanwhile, in September, Mr. Singh tore up the supply-and-confidence agreement.

The affordability crisis ultimately prompted a new approach from the government: The Liberals hit pause on the carbon price for home-heating fuel, introduced billions in new spending in a bid to generate housing supply and recently put in place a two-month GST holiday on popular consumer goods and services.

Canadians have rewarded none of those efforts with boosts in the polls.

Reaction across Canada to Justin Trudeau announcing his exit as prime minister

The election of Mr. Trump has thrown up another challenge to Mr. Trudeau, who became the first leader in the G7 to travel to meet with Mr. Trump after his victory.

Since then, the government has announced a new border-security plan and has continued high-level talks between cabinet ministers and the incoming U.S. administration.

Mr. Trump, however, has also mocked Mr. Trudeau on social media, and claimed some credit for Mr. Trudeau’s resignation, speculating that the Prime Minister is leaving because he declared his intention to end trade imbalances between Canada and the United States.

When asked Monday what he regrets, Mr. Trudeau pointed to his broken promise to change the country’s electoral system. He said he believed that if he had implemented a ranked ballot as opposed to the current first-past-the-post regime, it would have led to less political polarization.

His departure, he said, might also address that issue. He called prorogation and the subsequent leadership race an opportunity for a “reset” and a “fresh start.”

“I truly feel that removing the contention around my own continued leadership is an opportunity to bring the temperature down.”

With a report from James Bradshaw