Canada’s Trudeau says he will step down as PM after facing growing calls to resign

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that he will step down, succumbing to pressure from within his own Liberal Party and months ahead of an end of October deadline for the country’s next legislative elections.

Trudeau’s move ends nearly a decade in power, and marks a stark contrast to when he became prime minister in 2015, on a wave of enthusiasm that ended a similar period during which Canada’s Conservative Party held sway.

The prime minister said Canada’s Parliament will be prorogued until March 24 to allow time for his party to select a new leader, and will remain in his position until that time.

“I have always been driven by my love for Canada, by my desire to serve Canadians, and by what is in the best interest of Canadians, and Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. “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.”

While pressure had been building on Trudeau, 53, in recent years owing to dissatisfaction over housing affordability and other cost of living issues, the abrupt resignation of Chrystia Freeland, his deputy prime minister and finance minister, last month had apparently become too much of a political liability.

Freeland, who may be in the running to succeed Trudeau, left her post shortly after US president-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports if Canada did not stem what he called 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.