Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed he is stepping down as leader of the Liberal Party.
Addressing reporters at Rideau Cottage shortly before 9am MT on Monday, Trudeau said he intended to remain as leader – and prime minister – while the party chooses a successor.
Trudeau said he met with Governor General Mary Simon earlier on Monday and asked for Parliament to be prorogued until March 24, a request he said Simon had granted.
Proroguing Parliament means discontinuing proceedings without formally dissolving Parliament, which would trigger an election. Essentially, it buys the sitting government time for a leadership contest to be held and stops anyone else forcing a federal election in the immediate future.
Opposition parties have been pushing to hold an election at the earliest opportunity.
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The Conservatives have a 44-percent share of the national vote in recent polls, compared to 20 percent for the Liberals and 19 percent for the NDP.
Asked if the decision to prorogue Parliament while the Liberals find a new leader was undemocratic, Trudeau defended the move, saying the House of Commons had been paralyzed for months and needed a “reset.”
Trudeau, the prime minister since 2015, had found his position in particular jeopardy since late 2024, when deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland unexpectedly resigned.
In her resignation letter, Freeland accused Trudeau of spearheading “costly political gimmicks” and said she would handle the incoming US administration of Donald Trump differently.
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Since then, dozens of Liberal MPs have called for Trudeau to go.
Freeland is widely tipped to be one candidate to replace Trudeau, as is Dominic LeBlanc, who has strong connections with the North through his former roles as minister responsible for northern affairs and intergovernmental affairs.
Fort Smith-born Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of Canada, is reported to have spent recent days canvassing Liberal MPs for support as he contemplates a bid for the party leadership.
So far, there is no formal list of candidates for the job.
In the NWT, the territory’s Liberals have yet to name their own candidate for the next federal election, whenever that may take place. Michael McLeod, the incumbent Liberal MP, is stepping down after nearly 10 years in the role.
The party has said its NWT candidate will have “name recognition” when they are eventually unveiled.
The Conservatives have named Kimberly Fairman as their NWT candidate, while the New Democrats have once again selected Kelvin Kotchilea, who ran McLeod close at the last election.
On Friday last week, the NWT’s Greens told Cabin Radio they planned to run a contest to select a candidate “as soon as possible.”
McLeod had been one of the few Liberal MPs to publicly state he wanted Trudeau to stay, at least until the next budget is delivered.
McLeod told Cabin Radio northern leaders had been working hard on various aspects of that budget that would benefit the NWT, and he wanted the budget to take place so that those gains would not be lost.
