Justin Trudeau to resign as Canada's prime minister and Liberal Party leader

Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that he will step down as the country's leader and head of the Liberal Party.

"I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust, nationwide, competitive process," Trudeau said Monday in Ottawa at Rideau Cottage as he spoke in both French and English.

Trudeau, 53, will stay until March 24 after he first took the job in 2015 from then-conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The Canadian Parliament had a Jan. 27 date to begin its new session of the year, but on Monday the outgoing Trudeau said he asked Governor-General Mary Simon to extend its start to his last day in power in March.

He added that he shared the news with his three children Sunday night over dinner.

"This country deserves a real choice in the next election, and it's become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election," Trudeau told reporters.

At least 24 of Canada's 338 parliamentarians have called for Trudeau to step down in recent weeks, including a number of its regional caucuses such as the Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario.

Meanwhile, Canada's next federal election must be held by Oct. 20.

This arrives with Trudeau's Liberal Party at its lowest level of support in years with the Conservative Party holding a 21-point lead in public opinion leading to the October election, according to polling.

Trudeau says Canada's Liberal Party is an "important institution in the history of our great country and democracy," adding a new prime minister and party leader will "carry its values and ideals into the next election."

On Monday, the head of Canada's Liberal Party said he will call a meeting of its national board this week to begin a "nationwide democratic process" of finding a new leader.

Notably, Trudeau's father, Pierre Trudeau, was also Canada's prime minister from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. And his half-brother, Kyle Kemper, was a campaign surrogate for U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before later actively campaigning around the United States for now President-elect Donald Trump.

Last month Trudeau was in Florida to meet with Trump at his Florida estate but said little other than he had an "excellent" conversation with the incoming Republican president.

His announcement came nearly a month after the country's deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned from the Trudeau Cabinet saying the two were "at odds" over how to handle policy proposals by Trump, taking a swipe at Trudeau's handling of the Canadian economy in what she descried as "costly political gimmicks" and urged better collaboration.

"Our country today faces a grave challenge," Freeland wrote in a letter shared on social media. "The incoming administration in the United States is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including a threat of 25 percent tariffs."

However, Trudeau rebuilt his party "making it the most open and inclusive movement in Canadian politics," Liberal Party President Sachit Mehra wrote Monday in a statement.

Mehra said Trudeau delivered "transformational progress" pointing to $10-a-day childcare as well as Canada's first-ever national climate plan and establishment of a dental and universal pharma care program and other initiatives which led to a majority government in 2015 and successive elections in 2019 in 2021.