Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, facing an increasing loss of support within his party and low popularity in polls, says he will resign after just over nine years in office and only months before a federal election campaign.

At a Monday press conference outside his Rideau Cottage residence, Mr. Trudeau said he will stay on as Prime Minister while the Liberal Party elects a new leader. He also asked Governor-General Mary Simon to prorogue Parliament until March 24, which she granted.

Mr. Trudeau 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 in late December 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. Mr. Trudeau had privately informed her days earlier that she would be removed as his finance minister.

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’s exit.

Over the last three weeks, sources close to Mr. Trudeau told The Globe that he believed he was still the best person to lead the Liberal Party into the next election, but realized that he needed to have the caucus behind him to stay on.

On Sunday, a Liberal source said it had become increasingly clear to the 53-year-old Prime Minister that he did not have that team behind him. The Globe is not identifying the source because they were not permitted to disclose private discussions.

The Liberal Party’s internal turmoil followed other signs of a potentially disastrous result for Mr. Trudeau’s party in the next election, expected some time this year. In the last 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.

Mr. Trudeau’s resignation adds to the political uncertainty in Ottawa as Canada faces a significant economic threat from the United States. President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20 and has said he would impose a 25 per cent tariff on all Canadian imports over what he described as a porous border that has allowed too many illegal migrants and drugs into the U.S.

The next federal election is scheduled for October but is likely to happen much earlier.

The NDP had been propping up the minority Liberals via a supply-and-confidence agreement, but Leader Jagmeet Singh tore it up in September. In December Mr. Singh announced he’s now lost confidence in the Liberals and would introduce a non-confidence motion to bring them down.

It isn’t clear, however, whether Mr. Singh would support any renewed effort by the Conservatives to introduce such a motion. They’ve tried to pass several of them in recent months, but never had enough votes, though the Bloc Québécois has also now dropped its support of the government.

The uncertainty around the timing of the next federal election means the Liberals will need to install a new leader who may have little time to organize a national campaign and to set themselves apart from the unpopular Mr. Trudeau.

The Conservatives have already signalled what slogan they’ll use to taint whomever is election – “Just Like Justin,” a tagline they’ve applied to former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, one of the names in the mix for who might run for leadership.

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

Former B.C. premier Christy Clark is among those who are not currently sitting MPs also weighing a run, but the timing of the race could be a factor for her and other relative outsiders who don’t have as easy access to the Liberal rank-and-file.

Mr. Trudeau, the oldest son of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was elected to the House of Commons in 2008 and was elected 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 in 2015 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.

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, dental care and labour rights.

As Mr. Trudeau and the NDP began implementing their deal, in the fall of 2022, the Conservatives elected a new leader, long-time MP Pierre Poilievre.

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

With the cost-of-living pressures facing Canadians were driven by numerous factors, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and pandemic supply chain problems, 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 have tried to push back Mr. Poilievre’s attacks by focusing on the rebates they offered for the carbon price, the national child care program and other policies but couldn’t gain traction.

Mr. Poilievre would ultimately prompt a new approach: 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.

The election victory of U.S. president-elect Donald 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 election.

The trip to Mar-a-Lago was followed by a new border security plan and continuing high-level talks between cabinet ministers and the incoming U.S. administration.

Mr. Trump, however, has also mocked Mr. Trudeau on social media, leading to new rounds of criticism from Mr. Poilievre about Mr. Trudeau’s ability to govern in a new Trump era.

Marieke Walsh, Senior Political Reporter
Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief
Stephanie Levitz
The Globe and Mail, January 6, 2025