Justin Trudeau has resigned after greater than 9 years as Canada’s twenty third prime minister. Parliament will likely be prorogued and can resume sitting on March 24. Trudeau says he made his choice over the vacations after discussions together with his household.
Throughout his time in workplace, the federal authorities has been terribly lively on social coverage. From legalizing hashish, allowing medical help in dying, introducing dental care, pharmacare and government-subsidized little one care, Trudeau reimagined what Canadians can count on from their authorities.
The son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada’s fifteenth prime minister, leaves workplace by no means having tasted electoral defeat.
He was profitable in his first run for elected workplace as a member of Parliament in 2008, at his run for the management of the Liberal Celebration in 2013 and in his first nationwide election when he turned prime minister in 2015.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appears on at the beginning of a cupboard swearing in ceremony for Dominic LeBlanc in Ottawa in December 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
The 2015 election is one for the historical past books because the Liberal Celebration beneath Trudeau entered the race with simply 36 seats and was broadly anticipated to stay on the sidelines. However due partially to the “sunny ways” marketing campaign that Trudeau ran, alongside together with his power and likeability, the social gathering breezed to an enormous majority with 184 seats.
Trudeau additionally earned worldwide reward for appointing a cupboard that was gender-balanced, a coverage he continued all through his years in workplace.
Minority governments, Donald Trump
Trudeau’s Liberals had been re-elected in 2019 and 2021, though each occasions to minority governments that required help in Parliament from the left-leaning New Democratic Celebration.
Trudeau handled three American presidents, most notably with Donald Trump through the president’s first time period in workplace when the North American Free Commerce Settlement was renegotiated.
After Trump’s re-election in November 2024, the president-elect has repeatedly mocked Trudeau, calling him governor of the 51st American state — feedback that almost all Canadians discover deeply offensive.
The COVID-19 pandemic transpired throughout Trudeau’s time in workplace. As with different social insurance policies, Trudeau’s Liberals instituted a spread of mandates to guard public well being. Trudeau additionally invoked the Emergency Measures Act that allowed the federal authorities to train extraordinary powers to clear protesters that had been blocking components of Ottawa for weeks in February 2022.
The truckers’ protest started as a cross-country convoy protesting a federal vaccine mandate for truckers.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Uphill battle
Trudeau’s resignation comes after members of his personal social gathering misplaced religion through the previous a number of months in his means to win a fourth mandate as chief heading into the anticipated October 2025 election. However the Liberals, with or with out Trudeau, face an uphill battle after practically a decade in energy.
Profitable a fourth consecutive time period is uncommon in Canada. Solely two prime ministers — Wilfrid Laurier and John A. Macdonald — have executed so, and each achieved the feat greater than a century in the past when the political panorama had fewer events.
By resigning now, moderately than battling his personal social gathering after which enduring what seems will likely be sure defeat within the subsequent election, Trudeau leaves political life on a relative excessive notice regardless of his unpopularity within the polls and amongst some in his personal social gathering. The shock resignation of one among his closest cupboard colleagues, Chrystia Freeland, probably performed a task in his choice.
Pale reminiscences? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland earlier than the tabling of the federal finances on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in April 2024.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Maybe Trudeau took to coronary heart the instance of United States President Joe Biden, who sought to run for one further time period, solely to be pressured to withdraw on the final second by his personal social gathering. Critics have argued Biden’s efforts to hold on and his last-minute reversal contributed to the defeat of Kamala Harris and the lack of the White Home to Donald Trump.
Private toll
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his son, Hadrien, watch a standard First Nations recreation in Whitehorse, Yukon in February 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mike Thomas
Throughout Trudeau’s time in workplace, his marriage ended — as his personal dad and mom’ marriage did many years in the past whereas Pierre Trudeau was in energy. Two of his kids are youngsters, whereas one is a pre-teen. Trudeau has up to now remarked: “The best days of my life are the ones I’ve spent outside with my kids.”
He’ll now have extra time together with his household.
Nonetheless younger at age 53, Trudeau might start a second public life because the late U.S. president, Jimmy Carter, did following his 4 years within the Oval Workplace. Or he might largely withdraw from the general public sphere and pursue a personal sector profession.
It doesn’t matter what Trudeau’s future holds, he leaves an indelible mark on Canada — particularly on its social insurance policies.
