PM’s resignation too late to do any good: Political watchers

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This article was published 07/01/2025 (350 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Government critics and local pundits say it’s too little, too late for the Liberal Party of Canada to change the channel on Justin Trudeau’s leadership failures in the wake of the prime minister’s announcement that he will step down following a party leadership race.

“I like to use the analogy of, ‘The house is on fire.’ Let’s try to save the furniture,” Brandon University’s Department of Political Science chair, Prof. Kelly Saunders, said on Monday. “Well, not only is the house on fire, but most of the furniture is burning too. So what can the Liberal Party possibly try to salvage?”

“The Liberal Party is really in a bad situation right now. So this is obviously, you know, an extreme Hail Mary kind of situation for the party and the prime minister.”

Trudeau told Canadians yesterday that he will resign as Liberal leader and prime minister as soon as a new leader is chosen.

Standing outside his official residence in Ottawa on Monday morning, the teary-eyed Liberal leader said that he had reflected on his political future over the holidays and told his kids about his decision to step down during dinner on Sunday.

“This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” Trudeau said.

He also said he met with Gov. Gen. Mary Simon on Monday morning and that she had agreed to his request to prorogue Parliament until March 24.

Calls for him to step aside have been gaining steam for months but internal pressure from his own caucus rose to new heights after Chrystia Freeland quit as minister of finance and deputy prime minister on Dec. 16 after Trudeau had informed her he was going to move her out of the finance portfolio.

Her departure, hours before she was to table the fall economic statement in the House of Commons, sent shock waves through the government and the party.

Trudeau’s Monday announcement marked the first time the prime minister had taken questions from media since Freeland stepped down from cabinet last month, although he has limited his public appearances throughout the past year as pressure mounted against him.

Questions about Trudeau’s future have been swirling since support for his party began to tumble in 2023. The Liberals have trailed the Conservatives by more than 20 points for more than a year now.

Saunders said there’s every indication that the Liberals seat numbers in the House of Commons could be decimated in the next federal election — to as low as 50 seats or worse. Currently, the party holds minority government status with a total of 153 seats. Pierre Poilievre’s Opposition Conservatives hold 120, the Bloc Québécois hold 33 and the NDP trail with 25.

The larger question facing the party is whether Trudeau stepped down too late to do the Liberals any good. Saunders likened the situation facing the national Liberals to the spectre of the former Progressive Conservative Party after Brian Mulroney stepped down in the 1990s after he became deeply unpopular with Canadians.

He was followed by newly elected leader Kim Campbell, who spent a summer as prime minister and then promptly led her party to an overwhelming defeat in 1993. The party — and Campbell — had been unable to escape the shadow of its former leader.

“Anything can happen between now and the next election,” Saunders said. “Something you know could really blow up on the Conservative side — you know, what if a big scandal breaks out? But if we go by the polls and the trend in the polls over the last couple of years, we’re looking at a Conservative government and the Liberal Party not even relegated to the first opposition — (more likely) second or even third opposition party.”

For his part, Trudeau said he asked for Parliament to be prorogued because the House of Commons has been paralyzed for months through obstruction and needs a reset. Proroguing Parliament will put the legislature on pause for two months and wipe clear the current slate of legislation and delay opportunities for non-confidence votes that could trigger an election.

“It’s time for the temperature to come down, for people to have a fresh start in parliament to be able to navigate through these complex times domestically and internationally,” he said. “Removing me from the equation as the leader who will fight the next election for the Liberal party should also decrease the level of polarization we’re seeing right now in the House and in Canadian politics.”

The House of Commons had been scheduled to return Jan. 27, but the Conservatives intended to begin pushing a new non-confidence vote in a committee as early as this week.

In the meantime, Trudeau said he asked Liberal party president Sachit Mehra Sunday night to immediately launch a leadership race ahead of the next election.

Mehra said in a statement Monday that he will call a national board meeting this week to begin the “nationwide democratic process of selecting a new leader of the party.”

The next election has to be held by October of this year, but an earlier vote appears much more likely.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre sought to immediately cast this as a desperate political move by a sputtering Liberal party, whose MPs stood by their leader right up until he cratered in the polls and was no longer a viable candidate.

“Their only objection is that he is no longer popular enough to win an election and keep them in power,” Poilievre said in a statement. “They want to protect their pensions and paycheques by sweeping their hated leader under the rug months before an election to trick you, and then do it all over again.”

Local Brandon-Souris Conservative MP Larry Maguire echoed his party leader, stating that it wouldn’t matter if Liberal Party members “change the captain of the ship.” Like other opposition members, Maguire said the country needs an election as soon as possible.

“All of the members that are there now that are thinking of running are ones that have caused the deficit to go to $62 billion,” Maguire said, “that have doubled the debt of the country, doubled the homes and the rent and mortgages, caused this inflationary area that we’re in, and consistently do not want to get rid of the carbon tax, which has helped inflate this.”

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh also said this move changes nothing in the political landscape as Canadians struggle with the high cost of living the government has failed to fix.

“It doesn’t matter who leads the Liberals,” Singh said in a statement. “They don’t deserve another chance.”

Trudeau’s decision comes two weeks before Donald Trump is sworn back into office as president of the United States and Trudeau will remain at the helm during what is expected to be a rocky start to Trump’s second term in the Oval Office. Trump has threatened to impose steep import tariffs on all Canadian goods the day he is inaugurated.

Following his announcement Monday, Trudeau was still expected to attend a cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations Monday, chaired by Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a statement following Trudeau’s announcement that the federal government “must urgently explain to Canadians how they will avoid tariffs that could have devastating effects on our economy.”

Canadian Chamber of Commerce CEO Candace Laing said Trudeau read the room correctly and that this was the right call.

“His resignation marks a turning point as Canada tackles unprecedented domestic and international challenges,” she said. “Canada’s next prime minister must hit the ground running and be laser-focused on strengthening the Canada-U.S. trade relationship.”

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press