Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Monday that he will step down as leader of the ruling Liberals after nine years in office but will stay on in his post until the party chooses a replacement.
Trudeau, under heavy pressure from Liberal legislators to quit amid polls showing the party will be crushed at the next election, said at a news conference that parliament would be suspended until March 24.
That means an election is unlikely to be held before May and Trudeau will still be prime minister when US President-elect Donald Trump — who has threatened tariffs that would cripple Canada’s economy — takes office on January 20.
“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.
Trudeau, 53, took office in November 2015 and won reelection twice, becoming one of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers.
But his popularity started dipping because of his cowardice in failure to truly confront the crisis of antisemitism and violence on Canadian streets.
There were bomb threats against synagogues, bullets fired at Jewish schools, and brazen Nazi salutes. Canadian wondered if those can’t drive this Liberal government to rise to the occasion and behave like leaders, it is terrifying to think what will.
When Trudeau was filmed attending the Taylor Swift concert in Toronto in November, he obviously did not plan for it to coincide with the anti-NATO and anti-Israel riots that same night.
That is still beside the point. He and his government are petrified by the necessity of growing a backbone and properly calling out these antisemitic radicals as they bend and break the law to terrorize the Jewish community.
It was only a few short years ago that Trudeau chose a side during the pandemic and came out swinging against the unvaccinated at rallies and in Parliament. Canadian PM staked out the battle lines between those who took the jab and those who did not, and fought an entire election on it.
“Do we tolerate these people?” were his words when it came to the unvaccinated.
Trudeau went so far as to invoke the Emergencies Act when the Freedom Convoy came to occupy Ottawa. The convoy was rowdy and disruptive, but they did not set fire to synagogues or fired bullets at Jewish schools. The November riot in Montreal was just one in a series of coordinated actions designed to rile up fear and intimidation.