Justin Trudeau has resigned pending the election of a new leader for the Liberal Party.
For months, Trudeau has been facing resignation calls as Canadians face a cost of living crisis and, now, fears of economic turmoil thanks to President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 25 percent tariff.
Those calls became more aggressive in December after Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, unexpectedly resigned. That was, in part, due to disagreements over how to handle the potential tariffs.
By the end of the year, Liberal caucus members had joined the resignation calls, leaving Trudeau with dwindling options. While announcing his resignation, Trudeau citing fighting “internal battles” as one of the reasons he was stepping down.
Trump’s threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada sparked internal battles among Trudeau and his party
open image in gallery
Trump’s threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canada sparked internal battles among Trudeau and his party (AP)
Trudeau said he asked the president of the Liberal Party, Sachit Mehra, to begin the leadership selection process.The Liberal Party would have until March 24 to decide on a new leader. Parliament was supposed to resume on January 27 but Trudeau has asked for a lengthy suspension to give the party time.
Opposition parties, the Conservative Party, Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party all said they planned to hold a non-confidence vote when Parliament returned. Should the vote prevail, which it is likely to, it would trigger an early federal election.
In the meantime, the Liberal Party national board of directors must meet within the month to set a date for a leadership vote as well as establish other parameters around the leadership contest, according to the party’s constitution.
Yeah, Justin has had a long run which is hard on governments to start with and he didn’t learn many of the lessons his liberal predecessors absorbed which has resulted in even harder problems for his administration. Maybe his resigning will contain the damage but looking at how the past elections have gone I wouldn’t bet it. There’s gonna be a federal shellacking of the grits. *sigh* Back to the wilderness for them for a cycle.Report
The US should make a cash offer to the Board: Two States, Two Territories, and one Free City.Report
Heh, I can say with confidence that the Board wouldn’t even dignify such an offer with a response.Report
What is Trudeau’s legacy?
He was good looking, I’ll give him that much. Tall. Tall and good looking. He looks like he’d make a good prime minister. He comes across as a strong feminist ally as well. Like, they should cast him on Star Trek for something.
But, other than that, what’s his legacy?Report
Last of the Castros.Report
Legalized pot and pulling a lot of families above the poverty line with the child tax benefit and the first Prime Minister in decades to put a new pipeline to tidewater (which has recently reversed worrisome trends in the delta between West Texas Intermediate and West Canadian Select). National low cost day care (which is basically paid for in increased taxes from higher female work participation). Massively less people dying from COVID compared to the neighbouring state, which he directly led vaccine procurement effort that was near best in the world with no actual leverage but a big pocketbook. Plus pushing the total population above 40 million, but that’s seen less favorably right now (might be appreciated in the future though, that’s a policy that takes a while to pay off).
Most notable long term failure people will notice is the country did not shake off the hangover from how the American fracking boom deep sixed the last guy’s Energy Superpower idea (lots of oil is less of an advantage when America can make more of it at will).
Compares equal to better to the last guy whose only tangible policy accomplishment was lowering the GST by 2 points. Its the governments before them that got to really achieve things.Report
Well done, yes, basically he was quite capable when compared to his right wing predecessor but seems somewhat wane compared to his, well, Liberal predecessors. Ironically the area Trudeau’s weakest in, fiscal sobriety, is the area Cretchen and Martin made their names managing (well also eviscerating separatism but you’ll never match wily old Jonny Cretchen in that category since he left not a lot left to stomp on).Report
I didn’t see this until just now!
You know what? I didn’t know about the child tax benefit and that’s cool and I didn’t know about the Tidewater pipeline.
The whole low cost day care paid for by taxing women in the workforce strikes me as… well, it strikes me as something that a satirist might come up with.
The Covid thing? Okay. I guess. Population? Well… we’ll see.
The Energy Superpower thing was deep-sixed by Biden at the beginning of 2021 and I don’t know that Canada/US will recover that particular relationship.
Pot, of course, is very good.
I’m not sure about how much of that he’ll be remembered for, though.
Maybe the population thing.Report
Here’s one guy’s complaints. Not all about Trudeau, but he’s a big part of it.
“Canada is Slowly Dying! Here Are 8 Reasons Why…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWW6MJ3liFI&ab_channel=EntrepreneursinCarsReport