Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could announce his resignation as early as Wednesday, The Globe and Mail reported on the weekend, citing multiple sources close to the government.
The unnamed sources say while they don’t know exactly when, it’s expected to happen prior to the national caucus meeting scheduled for Wednesday (Thursday AEDT) as Trudeau doesn’t want it to look like he was forced out by his own MPs.
Three sources agree that they’re unsure what the sitting Liberal Party plans to do to replace him and that it’s unclear whether he will leave immediately or stay on as PM until a suitor for the role is found amongst the Party faithful.
Canada’s leader for the last nine years has rarely been spotted in public since a scathing resignation letter by his finance minister and deputy PM Chrystia Freeland came out on 16 December last year.
Freeland clashed with Trudeau on how to handle possible 25% tariffs that United States President-elect Donald Trump said he would impose on the neighbour.
It sent the leader’s popularity rating plummeting further, which was already on tenterhooks through concerns about his handling of inflation and immigration.
Trudeau and Freeland had also butted heads about a two-month sales tax holiday and $C250 (A$275) cheques that were announced.
"Our country is facing a grave challenge," Freeland wrote in her resignation letter.
The 53-year-old had expressed his desire to lead Canada’s Liberal Party into the next election, yet internally some party members don’t want him to run for a fourth term - something no Canadian PM has won in more than 100 years.
Trudeau was elected leader of the Liberal Party in 2013, captaining the party to a majority government in Canada’s 2015 federal election and becoming the second-youngest prime minister in the nation’s history.
He was also the first to be the child of a previous prime minister - his father Pierre Trudeau served as head of state twice, between 1968-1979 and 1980-1984.