CANADIAN P.M TRUDEAU’S RESIGNATION IMMINENT — REPORTS
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may resign as soon as Monday, according to media reports, as he faces mounting dissent within his Liberal party.
National newspapers The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star reported that sources inside Trudeau’s Liberal party expect him to step down ahead of its national caucus on Wednesday.
The announcement may be made in the coming 24 hours, sources told both papers in stories they ran on Sunday.
Trudeau’s office declined to comment on the reports when contacted for comment by AFP.
Trudeau’s departure would leave his party without a leader just a few months before the next legislative elections, scheduled to be held by the end of October.
It remained unclear whether Trudeau, 53, would remain as his party’s interim leader or would vacate the position immediately if he tendered his resignation as prime minister.
Trudeau’s popularity has waned in recent months, with his government narrowly surviving a series of no-confidence votes and critics calling for his resignation.
He has vowed to stay on to guide the Liberals to elections but has faced further pressure from incoming US president Donald Trump, who has threatened a 25-percent tariff on Canadian goods.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland quit in December after disagreeing with Trudeau over how to respond to Trump’s apparent plan, in the first open dissent against the prime minister within his cabinet.
Trudeau announced a major shakeup to his cabinet later that month, changing a third of his team in a bid to settle the political turmoil.
He traveled to Florida in November to meet with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in a bid to head off a trade war.
But the US president-elect has since also landed humiliating blows against Trudeau on social media, repeatedly calling him “governor” of Canada and declaring that the United States’ northern neighbor becoming the 51st US state is a “great idea.”
Trudeau swept to power in 2015 and led the Liberals to two more ballot box victories in 2019 and 2021.
But he now trails his main rival, Conservative Pierre Poilievre, by 20 points in public opinion polls.
The eldest son of the charismatic former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who died in 2000, Justin Trudeau came late to politics after working as a snowboard instructor, bartender, bouncer, and teacher.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in 2008 to represent a working-class Montreal neighborhood.
He brought in Senate reforms, signed a new trade deal with the United States, and introduced a carbon tax to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions during his first two terms as prime minister.
The married father of three also legalized cannabis, held a public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, and passed legislation permitting medically assisted suicide.
AFP
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