Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced his intention to resign as leader of the Liberal Party.
Trudeau said Monday he also intends to resign as prime minister when a new leader of the Liberal Party is determined.
“I intend to resign as leader of the party, as prime minister, once the party has chosen its next leader through a robust, nationwide competitive process,” he said. -he declared Monday from Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.
“I am a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians “, said the Prime Minister.
This development comes a month after the resignation of Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, from Trudeau’s cabinet, a sign of apparent turbulence within his government. Trudeau, 53, leader of the Liberal Party, became Canada’s 23rd prime minister in 2015.
In a letter to the prime minister announcing his resignation, Freeland addressed his differences with Trudeau over how to handle President-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threat.
“Our country faces a serious challenge today,” Freeland wrote in the letter she shared on social media. “The new US administration is pursuing a policy of aggressive economic nationalism, including the threat of 25 percent tariffs.”
“We must take this threat extremely seriously,” she continued, with actions that include the need for Canada to push back and resist “costly political gimmicks” and “build a real Team Canada response “.
Trump proposed new tariffs on imports from Canada – the third largest supplier of agricultural products to the United States, according to the Agriculture Department – as well as China and Mexico.
Trudeau visited Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Florida, last month to meet the president-elect. Trudeau told reporters at the time that his conversation with Trump was “excellent,” but did not respond to any further questions.
In her letter last month, Freeland said Trudeau told her he no longer wanted her to be finance minister and offered her another Cabinet position.
“After careful consideration, I have concluded that the only honest and viable path is for me to resign from Cabinet,” she said in the letter, which noted that she looked forward to continuing to work with her colleagues as as a Liberal MP and plans to run again for her seat in Toronto in the next federal election.
Dominic LeBlanc, the minister of intergovernmental affairs, will now also be the new finance minister after Freeland resigned from the position.
His resignation comes as Trudeau’s Housing Minister, Sean Fraser, also announced he would not run again for personal reasons, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
The next federal election is due to take place by October 20.
Support for Trudeau’s party has been steadily declining for months, with the Liberals currently at their lowest level of support in years, according to CBC News. The Conservative Party holds a 21-point lead over the Liberals heading into the federal election, according to CBC News.
Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, served as Prime Minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984, before retiring from politics before the next election.
This is a developing story. Please check again for updates.
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