OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce as early as Monday that he would quit as leader of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party after nine years in office, according to Reuters, citing a source familiar with Trudeau’s thinking.
The source requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Trudeau’s departure would leave the party without a permanent head at a time when polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October.
Sources told the Globe and Mail that they did not know definitely when Trudeau would announce his plans to leave but said they expect it would happen before an emergency meeting of Liberal legislators on Wednesday.
An increasing number of Liberal parliamentarians, alarmed by a series of gloomy polls, have publicly urged Trudeau to quit.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. The prime minister’s regularly published schedule for Monday said he would participate virtually in a cabinet committee meeting on Canada-U.S. relations.
It remains unclear whether Trudeau will leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new Liberal leader is selected, the Globe and Mail report added.
Trudeau, 53, took over as Liberal leader in 2013 when the party was in deep trouble and had been reduced to third place in the House of Commons for the first time.
Calls for him to step aside have grown since December, when Trudeau tried to demote Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of his closest cabinet allies, after she pushed back against his proposals for more spending.
Freeland quit instead and penned a letter accusing Trudeau of “political gimmicks” rather than focusing on what was best for the country.
Therefore, if Trudeau does resign, it would likely spur fresh calls for a quick election to put in place a stable government able to deal with the administration of President-elect Donald Trump for the next four years.
