Mr. Trudeau will stay in each roles till he’s changed as the top of the Liberal Social gathering, a course of that would take a number of months. His successor would then change into prime minister, at the least till federal elections are held.
The abrupt and acrimonious resignation of an influential Trudeau deputy final month highlighted his deep unpopularity after practically a decade in energy.
Right here’s what to find out about Mr. Trudeau’s rise and fall, and what might occur subsequent.
What is going to occur to Canada’s authorities?
Mr. Trudeau has requested for Parliament to be suspended till late March — a course of referred to as prorogation — making a prolonged pause to permit the Liberal Social gathering to carry a nationwide contest to decide on its subsequent chief.
After a brand new celebration chief is chosen, the following step could be to go to a federal election. Canada’s subsequent election should be held by October, however a vote may very well be known as or pressured earlier.
Quickly after Parliament returns, the Liberal Social gathering is more likely to face a vote of confidence. It might possible lose such a vote, because it solely instructions a minority of the seats in Parliament and has misplaced the help of different smaller events. That will immediate a federal election.
The prime minister additionally has the ability to dissolve Parliament at any time, which might additionally immediate an election.
Who’s Justin Trudeau?
Mr. Trudeau grew up within the highlight because the son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a Canadian prime minister. In 2015, at age 43, Mr. Trudeau grew to become Canada’s second-youngest chief after his Liberal Social gathering received a powerful parliamentary majority. Mr. Trudeau was savvy with social media and loved an extended political honeymoon after his election. (He additionally had good hair.)
In 2017, Mr. Trudeau got here below stress to face as much as Donald J. Trump, the newly elected U.S. president. As Mr. Trump restricted immigration, Mr. Trudeau restated Canada’s openness to asylum seekers, proclaiming, “Variety is our energy.”
Throughout his time in workplace, Mr. Trudeau prioritized two points. One was local weather change. The opposite was reconciliation with Indigenous folks, over the generational harms from a system of boarding colleges that had been rife with abuse. He additionally adopted by on a pledge to legalize marijuana.
In 2019, the Liberals maintained their maintain on energy with Mr. Trudeau as their chief, however by a narrower margin, and so they did not safe a majority in Parliament. The Liberals wanted help from smaller events to advance Mr. Trudeau’s legislative agenda.
In the course of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Mr. Trudeau grew to become the primary Group of seven chief to isolate himself, after his spouse, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, examined optimistic for Covid-19. (The couple at the moment are separated.) The subsequent 12 months, when his approval rankings had been nonetheless comparatively excessive, he known as a snap election, saying he wished a powerful mandate for his celebration to guide Canada out of the pandemic and into financial restoration.
Voters returned him to workplace in 2021, however the Liberals failed once more to win a majority of votes in Parliament. Mr. Trudeau has since confronted intense criticism from the Conservative opposition for a few of his pandemic and restoration insurance policies.
Why is his authorities unpopular?
Financial system: Canada’s post-pandemic inflation spiked to eight %, although it has since receded beneath 2 %. Unemployment stays excessive, round 6.4 %. The Conservative opposition has hammered Mr. Trudeau’s carbon-tax program.
Housing: The price of housing in lots of main Canadian cities has change into untenable. An financial evaluation this 12 months discovered that in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, costs must plummet, or incomes must improbably soar, to revive affordability.
Immigration: In October, Mr. Trudeau stated he was tightening Canada’s immigration insurance policies after the nation welcomed practically three million folks over three years, straining well being care and different companies. “Within the tumultuous instances as we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labor wants and sustaining inhabitants progress, we didn’t get the steadiness fairly proper,” he stated.
Scandals: In 2018, Mr. Trudeau was accused of groping a reporter in 2000, an allegation he rejected. A federal ethics commissioner in 2019 dominated that Mr. Trudeau tried to avoid, undermine and discredit his former justice minister and lawyer normal, Jody Wilson-Raybould, in reference to a legal case in opposition to SNC-Lavalin, a multinational engineering and development agency based mostly in Montreal. That very same 12 months, photos surfaced of Mr. Trudeau sporting blackface or brownface as a pupil within the Nineteen Nineties and as a trainer at a personal prep college in 2001.
Infighting: Mr. Trudeau’s maintain on energy slipped in September when the left-leaning New Democratic Social gathering disadvantaged Liberals of assured help wanted to cross laws. Final month, Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, resigned abruptly, a stinging rebuke to Mr. Trudeau.
Who’re the highest contenders to succeed him?
Conservatives: Pierre Poilievre has led the Conservative Social gathering since 2022, branding himself because the anti-Trudeau, sensible and down-to-earth. He supported a blockade of Canada’s capital, Ottawa, in 2022 led by truckers who opposed vaccine mandates and pandemic restrictions. Mr. Poilievre has been eyeing the highest authorities spot since at the least 1999, when as a college pupil he wrote an essay that received a money prize about what he would do as prime minister.
In a video posted on social media on Monday, Mr. Poilievre criticized members of Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Social gathering of conserving him in energy solely till his recognition plunged.
Liberals: After her resignation final month, there was widespread hypothesis that Chrystia Freeland, the previous deputy prime minister and finance minister, would begin her personal bid to run the Liberal Social gathering.
On Monday, Trudeau had type phrases for Ms. Freeland. He declined to share the main points of what transpired between them, however folks accustomed to the occasions surrounding her departure stated that Trudeau tried to fireplace her over a Zoom name and provided her a minister-without-portfolio place, which she declined.
Different Liberal contenders embody Dominic LeBlanc, who grew to become finance minister when Ms. Freeland resigned; Mélanie Joly, Canada’s prime diplomat since 2021; and Mark Carney, the previous governor of the Financial institution of Canada, who additionally led the Financial institution of England.
Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.
