Trudeau is preparing to leave office at a time when Canada-U.S. relations have hit a new low
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his last day in office will depend on how long of a transition his successor needs.
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Trudeau announced on Jan. 6 he would resign once the Liberal leadership race concludes, which will happen on Sunday.
Trudeau, who has served as prime minister since 2015, says the timing of his departure depends on the needs of the next leader.
“That will be up to a conversation between the new leader and myself,” he told reporters on Tuesday, after addressing the trade war triggered earlier that morning with the U.S.
“It should happen reasonably quickly but there’s a lot of things to do in a transition like this, particularly at this complicated time in the world.”
Trudeau is preparing to leave office at a time when Canada-U.S. relations have hit a new low, with the U.S. President Donald Trump slapping 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports and saying repeatedly that he wants Canada to become a 51st state. He has led the Liberal party since 2013.
The race to replace Trudeau as Liberal party leader has been dominated by the question of how each candidate would navigate Trump.
Both Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland, the two-time former central banker and former finance minister, respectively, have promised to retaliate through dollar-for-dollar tariffs.
Carney, who is the perceived front-runner in the race, has left the door open to calling an early election before returning to Parliament as scheduled on March 24, should he be named the next Liberal leader..
Expectations of a March election call have risen steadily as the Liberals watch their fortunes rise in public opinion polls, after badly trailing the Conservatives for more than a year-and-a-half. Trudeau’s exit, combined with the threats posed by Trump and the prospect of a new leader appear to have prompted some Canadians to reconsider the Liberal party, although pollsters say it is unclear whether the party’s rise will last
“The last thing we need right now is an election,” said Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, which is Canada’s largest private sector union.
“We need somebody in charge at the moment.”
She pointed to how Trump has promised additional tariffs on steel and aluminum beginning next week and then reciprocal tariffs on countries which have retaliated April 2. There is also a trade study due to the White House next month, which U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says could open the door to even more tariffs.
“We’ll be in a situation where we’ll need to make decisions on a whole bunch of things.”
“There will have to be decisions made around how we support Canadians, how we support industries, how we push back in a non-tariff way, so we need a functioning government.”
Both the Conservatives and federal New Democrats say Trudeau should reopen Parliament which the prime minister asked Governor General Mary Simon to suspend until the end of March, while the Liberals chose their new leader.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh echoed that call to Trudeau and opposition leaders on Tuesday, asking they return to Parliament to pass emergency measures.
Canadians must go to the polls no later than October.
National Post
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