Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigns as Liberal Party leader

Canada’s Justin Trudeau on Monday said he would step down from the helm of the ruling Liberal Party, but will stay on as prime minister until a new leader is selected.

“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister after the party selects its next leader through a robust .. process,” he said during a Monday press conference. “I cannot be the one to carry the liberal standard into the next election.”

He added that the Canadian parliament will be prorogued until March.

Domestic press had reported he was expected to announce his resignation before a key national caucus meeting on Wednesday. Canadian stocks were slightly higher following the news. The S&P TSX index was up 0.1%, and the Canadian dollar gained 0.5% to 1.4373 against its U.S. counterpart. The iShares MSCI Canada ETF (EWC) climbed 0.5%.

Canada’s latest political crisis was triggered by the abrupt departure of former Trudeau ally and Deputy and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who resigned in December, citing differences over Ottawa’s response to prospective U.S. trade nationalism over the next four years under President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

Dominic LeBlanc has since been appointed to replace her and head the finance ministerial portfolio.

Trudeau, 53, who assumed office in 2015 and won re-election twice, suffered a plunge in voter popularity to just 19% in the wake of Freeland’s departure, pollster Abacus Data found on Dec. 17. The Angus Reid on Dec. 30 pronounced a “bruising year for federal Liberals” and assessed just 16% of popular support for the party — its weakest level since the institute began tracking in 2014.

The opposition Conservative Party now has a more than 20% lead in the polls ahead of general elections expected by late October — and its firebrand leader Pierre Poilievre has gained the compliments of Trump ally Elon Musk, who recently praised his “great interview.”

Despite growing calls for his resignation, Trudeau had demurred on taking the step since the middle of December, and the Liberal Party lacks a mechanism to evict its leader non-consensually.

In a fresh blow to Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, leader of allied left-wing New Democratic Party, on Dec. 20 announced in an open letter the intention to introduce a motion to topple Trudeau’s government, paving the path for an election.

“Justin Trudeau has failed in the most important task beholden to a prime minister: working for the people and not for the powerful,” Singh said, according to a CNBC translation. “The liberals of Justin Trudeau have made many beautiful promises. Yet they have let down the people, again and again.”

Trudeau has recently presided over a Canadian economy that only just heeled inflation below its 2% target in November, but remains battered by household debt, rising unemployment, the worst productivity performance in the OECD in 2023 and panoptic exposure to the U.S. – where President-elect Trump, belittling “governor” Trudeau, has already teased the possibility of both 25% tariffs and annexation.

Differences over Canada’s response to Trump’s “aggressive economic nationalism” finally splintered Freeland from Trudeau last month.  

“We need to take that threat very seriously,” she warned in her resignation letter, stressing “the serious challenges presented by the United States” and urging pushback against “‘America First’ economic nationalism with a determined effort to fight for capital and investment and the jobs they brings.”

— CNBC’s Fred Imbert contributed to this report.