Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada announced on Monday that he would step down as Liberal Party leader and prime minister, a decision that means Canada will have a new leader once his party picks a new head through a nationwide election.
“Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians,” Mr. Trudeau said as he announced his decision in Ottawa, the capital. His resignation sets off a succession battle to replace him after roughly a decade at the helm of both the party and the country.
The upheaval comes as the country is grappling with how best to deal with President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pledge to impose crippling tariffs on all imports from Canada on his first day in office. Canada and the United States are each other’s biggest trading partners.
Mr. Trudeau visited Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago in late November and his government has been in talks to address the president-elect’s concerns about border security, in hopes that he will reconsider his tariff threat.
Mr. Trudeau has faced weeks of mounting pressure from inside his party’s ranks. In December, Mr. Trudeau’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, abruptly stepped down in a stinging rebuke of his leadership and stewardship of the country, inciting a growing chorus of voices from Liberal parliamentarians asking him to step aside for the sake of the party, and let someone else lead the Liberal Party against the Conservatives in general elections.
Elections would likely be contested sometime in the spring, according to experts.
General elections need to be held by October, in line with Canada’s electoral rules.
Trudeau has been in power since 2015, having resuscitated the Liberals, who had crashed electorally before he took over in 2013.
But he has become deeply unpopular: According to a poll released last month by Ipsos, 73 percent of Canadians — including 43 percent of Liberal voters — believed he should step down as party leader.
He has been under intense pressure, especially after the abrupt and acrimonious resignation of a key deputy last month, which highlighted his deep unpopularity after nearly a decade in power.
