Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation on Monday after serving in this position since 2015.
During a press conference, Trudeau stated he plans to step down as prime minister after his party selects a new leader.
Over the holidays, I've also had a chance to reflect and have had long talks with my family about our future. Throughout the course of my career, any success I have personally achieved has been because of their support and with their encouragement. So last night, over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today. I intend to resign as party leader and as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process.
It happened!!
— A Sports HD (@crickwick2k21) January 6, 2025
JUSTIN TRUDEAU RESIGNS!!pic.twitter.com/63iOZjz4O0
Trudeau’s decision comes after members of the Labour Party persuaded him to step down amid polling showing that it would suffer devastating losses to the Conservative Party if he remained in his position, according to Newsweek. He will remain as prime minister until a replacement is selected.
The prime minister has had a long and storied career in Canadian politics. He first started his journey in 2008.
Trudeau first entered the political scene in 2008, when he was elected a member of Parliament, and then as leader of the Liberal Party five years later.
In 2015, he claimed the premiership after he campaigned on an anti-Conservative platform and won a clear majority in the October elections, seeing off his predecessor, Stephen Harper.
One of the country’s youngest-ever leaders, Trudeau ascended to popularity by pushing progressive values on the global stage, branding himself as an antidote to former President Donald Trump. He won successive elections in 2019 and 2021.
But his early rise has steadily declined after a series of political setbacks — including accusations of racism after old photographs surfaced of him using blackface and anger over vaccine mandates during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Trudeau has come under fire on numerous occasions throughout his time in office. The blackface issue, in particular, caused many to accuse him of being a racist.
Perhaps the most significant scandal erupted in 2019 when images emerged of him wearing brownface at a party in 2001 while he taught at a private school.
The photographs showed Trudeau, then a 29-year-old teacher at the West Point Grey Academy in Vancouver, dressed as an Arabian Nights character with his skin darkened, a turban, and robes.
This incident, along with two additional instances of Trudeau in blackface, sparked massive outrage.
While he issued public apologies, acknowledging the racism of his actions, the damage was done, and his leadership was called into question by many, particularly among Canada’s minority communities.
WAIT!!!!!!
— Xaviaer DuRousseau (@XAVIAERD) June 6, 2023
I just learned that this photo is REAL 💀 I always thought this photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface was photoshop. I am SCREAMING !!! pic.twitter.com/fSdWXtd54U
Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, has been an aggressive critic of Trudeau’s administration and is expected to become the country’s next prime minister. He has been highlighting many of the problems Canada is facing, including inflation, rising mortgage rates, and the current housing crisis, Politico reported.
Poilievre in July 2024 called Trudeau a “joke on the world stage” and said he was “embarrassed” by his attendance at the NATO leaders’ summit.
I was embarrassed to see our prime minister treated like a human piñata by the rest of the NATO countries. They look upon him with total and complete ridicule. Canadians are tired of being embarrassed by a prime minister who prances around and preens, lectures the world, without doing his part.
The prime minister’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has also been a sore spot for Canadians, who resented the lockdown orders and other restrictions placed on them. Anger over these policies led to a massive protest involving truckers who organized the Freedom Convoy to demonstrate against Trudeau’s COVID-19 policies.
The prime minister responded by sending thousands of police officers to arrest protesters under the Emergencies Act even though they were not engaging in violence.
A federal judge in 2024 ruled that Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act led to violations of constitutional rights. She noted that “there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable.”
It is not yet known who will take over the Labour Party after Trudeau’s resignation.
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