Just In: Canadian Prime Minister Set to Resign this Week

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is likely to resign as the Liberal Party leader this week, the Mail and Globe reported, citing sources from his administration who wished to remain anonymous.

It is unclear whether Trudeau will also resign as the country’s prime minister. But, his resignation as a party leader would trigger a race for the top post, with the next party leader becoming the prime minister.

Trudeau has been under mounting pressure since Chrystia Freeland’s resignation as his finance minister on 16 December. Freeland resigned unceremoniously, criticising Trudeau in a public letter.

Since Freeland’s resignation, the prime minister has largely disappeared from public view. Trudeau spent much of his holidays at a resort in western Canada and has not indicated his future decision.

Amid stagnant economic growth, the party’s poll prospects are also falling. A new survey by Nanos Research, taken over the holiday period, has the Conservative Party extending its lead into an election year.

Faced with the prospect of losing most of their 153 seats, the Liberals have now launched pre-poll campaign advertisements claiming that the Conservatives would cut social security schemes.

Liberal Party members from the country’s border provinces told Bloomberg that US president-elect Trump’s threat of tariffs on Canada’s exports made it urgent that Trudeau made a decision.

“The country could face instability, notably from an economic threat in the potential of a 25% US tariff on Canadian imports from the incoming administration,” read a letter from party leader Kody Blois, who leads a group of liberals from Canada’s four easternmost provinces.

Report has it that Trudeau’s resignation as the party leader is unlikely to leave him in a strong position to “negotiate anything” with the incoming US president.