Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday morning (local Ottawa time) in a news conference broadcast live around the world.
“I intend to resign as prime minister, as party leader, after the party selects its next leader through a robust process,” he said. “If I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option.”
The prime minister noted that Canada’s legislature has been “paralyzed for months” in the longest session of a minority-run parliament in the country’s history, and said he told the governor general that a new parliamentary session was needed.
“It has become clear to me I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal Party banner going in to the next elections due to internal battles,” he added.
Trudeau met with Canada’s governor general Monday morning to request that she “prorogue” the parliament until March 24, suspending all proceedings, including debates and votes, without dissolving the legislative body.
Suspending proceedings in the Canadia parliament, which is on holiday break until January 27, would give Trudeau’s Liberal Party time to find a new leader.
Canada’s governor general granted Trudeau’s request.
The embattled prime minister has served as leader of the Liberal Party for 11 years, and as head of state for the past nine years. In recent weeks, however, he has been under increasing pressure to leave rather than wait to be pushed out.
The Canadian leader’s popularity had sunk to just 28 percent and was seriously damaged by the recent resignation of former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland of Toronto.
Freeland, long been considered a likely successor to the prime minister, was serving as Canada’s first female finance minister when she abruptly resigned her post last month, citing irreconcilable differences with Trudeau.
On November 22, 2024, Trudeau told reporters during a news conference that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the premier arrived on Canadian soil, in line with a warrant for the arrest of the Israeli head of state and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, issued by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
“First of all, as Canada has always said, it’s really important that everyone abide by international law,” Trudeau said.
“This is something we’ve been calling on from the beginning of the conflict. We are one of the founding members of the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice … We stand up for international law, and we will abide by all the regulations and rulings of the international courts,” Trudeau added. “This is just who we are as Canadians.”
