Canada’s Justin Trudeau Resigns as Party Leader Paving the Way for New Leadership

So current projections have the conservatives winning a full majority in Parliament. But what really made the Prime minister decide to announce his resignation now is the fact that there's been so much turmoil within his party, not just starting from the resignation of former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, but going as far back as earlier this summer when members of Parliament were publishing letters saying that they would like for him to step down, calling behind closed doors. And then increasingly, over the past few months in public for the prime Minister to chart a new path for the party and let somebody else take the reins of the Liberal leadership.

So there is no appointed successor to the Prime Minister. He said that the party will hold a competitive race, to see who will be the next leader of the Liberal Party. And by virtue of that, the next prime minister of Canada. No candidates have claimed or laid their claim to the race yet.

But former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, a few ministers in his cabinet, Innovation Minister Champagne, Treasury secretary, and and transport minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Joly--all of these are names that are being circulated, although none of them have officially thrown their hat into the ring yet.

Current projections don't bode well for the Liberal Party. They haven't bode well for the past 12 months. It shows that the conservatives, if the election were held tomorrow, would win an overwhelming majority. And that's been supported by results we've seen in by elections in Ottawa, in Quebec, in Toronto, where the liberals have had historically safe seats, we've seen them lose seats that they haven't lost since the Cold War.

So, all projections right now indicate that the conservatives are going to win. Now, we may see a bump from Trudeau stepping down. We may see a honeymoon bump once the next leader of the liberals is selected. We could see a bump if they respond well to threats from the United States like universal tariff policies, or to international opportunities like hosting the G7, which Canada is currently slated to do, this summer.

So there's a whole number of opportunities for the liberals to shore up their support and turn the situation around. As it stands, it'll be very difficult to do so, especially as the conservatives continue to hammer away at Liberal policies that have been unpopular in the wake of economic recovery post-Covid.

Canada has a lame duck prime minister, while a new president of the United States is being inaugurated. It's a remarkable moment in Canada-US relations. And whoever inherits, Canada-US relations, whether it's a liberal prime minister, whether it's a conservative prime minister, they will have to contend with many of the same issues that Prime Minister Trudeau has had to contend with over the past few months.