OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make an announcement about his future Monday morning at 10:45 a.m. ET after months of questions about his leadership and a Liberal nosedive in the polls.
Trudeau has faced calls to resign from all quarters in recent weeks in the wake of a new round of caucus upheaval sparked by the resignation from cabinet of former finance minister Chrystia Freeland on Dec. 16. After spending two weeks over the holidays reportedly “reflecting” on his future, and hearing calls from almost every Liberal regional caucus to step down, Trudeau appears to have come to a decision.
Trudeau will be addressing reporters from his residence at Rideau Cottage. It will be the first time he will be answering questions from the media since Freeland resigned three weeks ago.
This announcement is also coming as Trudeau was set to face his disgruntled team at a special meeting of the national Liberal caucus on Wednesday. It was scheduled to last nearly all day and includes times for regional caucuses to meet, National Post reported on Friday.
It hasn’t just been internal pressure on the prime minister. Along with many of his own MPs calling for him to resign, the Liberals have seen increasingly dire national poll numbers that suggest the party’s official status could be under threat.
At the end of December, the Angus Reid Institute released a poll showing the Liberals plummeting to 16 per cent support and the Conservatives at 45 per cent. Only 16 per cent of respondents wanted Trudeau to cling to power, while 46 per cent wanted the prime minister to resign immediately. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents wanted an immediate federal election in February.
Trudeau’s resignation would spark a Liberal leadership race to take his place as prime minister and lead the party into the 2025 federal election, which is scheduled to happen in October. Because the Liberals only command a minority Parliament, the three opposition parties could bring the government down at any moment and send Canadians to the polls.
National Post
Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.