Tue Jan 07 03:59:58 UTC 2025: ## Trudeau to Step Down as Canadian Prime Minister
**OTTAWA** – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday he will resign in the coming months, ending his nine-year tenure. The decision follows dismal polling numbers for the Liberal Party, prompting concerns about their prospects in the upcoming federal election, which must be held by late October.
Trudeau will remain Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader until a successor is chosen. Unlike some other parliamentary systems, Canada’s party leaders are elected through a leadership convention, a process that could take several months.
To buy time, Parliament has been prorogued until March 24th, delaying any potential non-confidence votes from opposition parties seeking to bring down the minority government. A new election is now unlikely before May at the earliest.
While the Liberals could still face confidence votes on upcoming spending measures and the budget (likely in April), the extended timeline allows the party to choose a new leader before facing voters. The party aims for a quicker leadership race than previous contests, which lasted five to eight months. Several prominent Liberals, including Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Transport Minister Anita Anand, and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly, are considered potential successors. Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor Mark Carney is also a possibility, though he would need to win a parliamentary seat first.
Although polls suggest a Liberal defeat regardless of leadership, the party hopes a new leader might mitigate the scale of their losses. The Governor General, Mary Simon, holds ultimate constitutional power, but experts deem her intervention highly unlikely as long as Trudeau retains nominal support in the House of Commons. The Liberal Party has initiated the process of selecting a new leader.
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