So Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has finally bowed to the inevitable and announced that he is stepping down.
There really was no other option open to him. He’s at 22 per cent in a recent Angus Reid poll, and remaining in office would have guaranteed his party’s loss at the next election.
By resigning, he gives the Liberals at least a fighting chance under a new leader who may perhaps enjoy a honeymoon period, though likely short in length.
The question now is who will replace Trudeau.
Chrystia Freeland, former Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, is certainly a possibility. Her resignation may have separated her from at least some responsibility for the dreadful shape of the country’s finances.
Dominic LeBlanc, Freeland’s replacement at Finance and before that minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, has been mentioned as a possibility.
And Mark Carney, previously governor of the Bank of sa国际传媒 and the Bank of England, is known to have reached out to several Liberal MPs about making a run for the leadership.
Carney would have the advantage of distance from any of the controversies surrounding Trudeau and his government. He could also claim to have a firm grasp on fiscal matters.
Yet there is precious little time for the Liberals to organize a leadership race. The main opposition parties have agreed that when Parliament returns, they will vote no confidence in the government. That would force an immediate election.
Along with his plan to resign, Trudeau announced that Parliament would be prorogued — or suspended, in other words — until March 24, almost two months later than previously scheduled.
While Trudeau’s standing in the polls had been 20 points below the Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre for more than a year, it was the last few months that settled his fate.
Starting in the fall, Liberal MPs had begun calling on the prime minister to stand aside.
Byelection losses raised the pressure.
Then in December, just hours before she was due to deliver an economic update, Freeland quit. In her resignation letter she referred to “costly political gimmicks” which the country could ill afford, gimmicks it must be said that she had signed her own name to.
Nevertheless, the timing of her departure painted an all too clear picture of a government in chaos and a back bench in uproar.
It will be interesting to see if Poilievre retains his 20-point lead in the opinion polls after a new Liberal leader is selected. It may well be that his attraction has been based, at least in part, on contrasting him with Trudeau, rather than in his policies or personality.
Notably, in a recent interview, Poilievre maintained that he would not move his policies to the centre. He remains a firm right-wing politician.
This inability, or unwillingness, to compromise worked when facing a government that had drifted some distance to the left. But it may not serve him well if the new Liberal leader presents a moderate face.
In any case a spring election is a certainty, and in the circumstances, that is for the best. Trudeau will remain in office only until a new Liberal leader is selected.
With Donald Trump threatening tariffs on Canadian goods and services when he takes office, it is essential that sa国际传媒 have a settled government that can push back effectively.
