OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspended Parliament until March 24 on Monday morning and announced he’ll resign as soon as the Liberal party chooses a leader to succeed him.

Here’s what you need to know.

Rough start

Trudeau emerged from his residence at Rideau Cottage about 15 minutes late. His teleprompter had failed in the winter cold; as he opened the door, frigid wind blew a printed copy of his speech off his lectern.

“I’ll wing it,” Trudeau said.

Why he’s quitting

A general election is due no later than October—sooner, if the opposition parties follow through on promises to bring the Liberals down in the House of Commons. “It has become clear to me that if I’m having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau had faced calls from within his own party to resign for months, but contemplated his future over Christmas after two major changes to his circumstances. Chrystia Freeland, his deputy and finance minister, stormed out of his cabinet on the day she was supposed to deliver the government’s fall economic statement. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose support for the Liberal government has been pivotal, said he’ll vote to bring the Liberals down.

More and more Liberal MPs began calling for Trudeau’s resignation while he skied in British Columbia, amid public polling showing the bottom falling out of the party’s support.

What happens next

Trudeau’s decision to prorogue Parliament all but eliminates the possibility of a snap election before March 24.  

The Liberal party executive has to decide how to run a leadership race, and that could take a few weeks, Trudeau said in French. The party’s president Sachit Mehra expects to convene the national board to begin that work later this week. 

If the party wants a new leader and prime minister in place by the end of March, the process can’t be done by the book. The party referred all questions about the timing of the race to the Liberal constitution, which requires that nominations be in, with hundreds of signatures from party members, at least 90 days before a vote; 90 days from today is April 6.

The government faces a deadline at the end of March for Parliament to approve what’s called “interim supply”—an essential bill authorizing departments to spend money. Without it, the machinery of government will have only fiscal fumes, money left unspent from the supply period we’re in now.

“This is something that we’re going to navigate through,” Trudeau said.

A supply bill is inherently a confidence measure, so whoever is prime minister when the Commons meets again will stand or fall on it almost immediately. In a video press conference, Singh said he will vote against the Liberals on any confidence measure. 

“It doesn’t matter who the leader is, the Liberals have let you down. They do not deserve another chance,” he said.

Trudeau did not answer a question about whether cabinet ministers who want the top job will have to resign their posts to campaign.

Dealing with Trump

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is due to take office Jan. 20, and has not publicly softened his threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all imports of Canadian goods over border-security issues, or possibly the U.S. trade deficit.

“I can assure you that the tools and the need to stand up for Canadians to protect Canadians and their interests and continue to fight for the economy is something that everyone in this government will be singularly focused on,” Trudeau said.

The Washington Post reported Monday that incoming Trump officials are putting together tariff plans that would hit all countries but apply only to certain goods. Trump called that “fake news.”

Under Trudeau’s exit plan, Canada will have a lame-duck prime minister heading a cabinet that will likely have several senior members competing for his job (or lining up alongside those who are), and whose early performance in the new Trump era hasn’t inspired voters.

In a video statement, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre charged the “leaderless Liberals” with being focused on “saving their jobs and fighting each other for power,” instead of Trump’s tariff threats and other pressing priorities. 

The prorogation puts off legal changes that are part of the Liberals’ proposals to improve border security, which they included in the fall economic statement—such as giving customs officials the authority to examine exports and increasing powers to fight money laundering. It also postpones changes that could have made it easier for Canada to retaliate against the U.S. or other countries in trade disputes.

Unfinished business

The decision to prorogue Parliament vaporized some important economic and tech-related legislation that hadn’t yet passed, some of it after years of work:

• Bill C-26 on cybersecurity: This two-part law would have banned equipment from Huawei and ZTE from next-generation telecom networks (which the Liberals have been talking about since at least 2019), and created new security obligations for operators of critical infrastructure. It died just inches from the finish line, awaiting a final House of Commons vote on housekeeping amendments from the Senate.
• Bill C-27 on privacy and artificial intelligence: A second attempt to update the decades-old federal law regulating private-sector privacy rights and obligations was (controversially) paired with a new law to regulate “high-impact” artificial intelligence systems. 
• Bill C-33 on reforming goods transportation: Changes to rail and ports laws, partly a response to a 2022 task force report on strengthening supply chains after the pandemic-driven crisis.
• Bill C-63 on online harms: A major bill to fight digital hate and illegal pornography including deepfakes, condemned by opponents as a censorship bill. The Liberals had announced last month they would split the bill to accelerate its child-protection elements but never got to do it.
• Bill C-72 on interoperability of medical information systems: The bill affecting health-tech vendors was part of an effort to gather the country’s fractured national health data into a clear national picture, a key part of Trudeau’s $196-billion health accord with provinces. 
• Bill S-6 on regulatory modernization: Dozens of revisions to other bills meant to smooth dealings with the government. One provision would allow businesses dealing with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to communicate electronically, not only on paper, for instance.
• Bill C-365 on open banking: A private member’s bill, from Conservative MP Ryan Williams, that got farther through the legislative process than most. It would have required the finance minister to present a plan for implementing open banking.

The hard reset on Parliament also sends plans to legislate the proposed increase on the capital gains inclusion rate back to square one, and leaves all new measures proposed in the fall economic statement in limbo. 

Trudeau’s view of his own record

“I think we reduced poverty, we helped families, we created an economy that works for many more people in preparation for a digital future and for the greater impact of climate change as well,” he said. As he has before, Trudeau said he regretted breaking a promise he made in 2015 to reform the electoral system.

Reaction

Goldy Hyder, CEO of the Business Council of Canada, praised the Trudeau government’s renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, reduction of child poverty and management of the COVID-19 pandemic. But he lamented the poor relationship between the government and private sector in other areas, “especially around the need for fiscal responsibility and policies that enable long-term economic growth, including embracing our energy abundance.”

Candace Laing, CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, said Trudeau made the right call by announcing his plans to quit. Canada faces unprecedented domestic and international challenges, she said in a statement: “Canada’s next prime minister must hit the ground running and be laser-focused on strengthening the Canada-U.S. trade relationship.”

“Canada burns while Nero fiddles,” tweeted John Ruffolo of Maverix Private Equity. The country needs an election to choose a leader with a mandate to negotiate with the United States, he wrote.

Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, chided the Liberals for proroguing Parliament while the party deals with internal politics. “A party putting itself before country when you are polling this low feels borderline suicidal,” he said in reply to Ruffolo’s post. 

With Trump’s tariffs looming, Trudeau’s decision to prorogue Parliament rather than call an election is “irresponsible and selfish,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said. “Canadians need and deserve a prime minister and federal government with a clear mandate won from the Canadian people to negotiate with the incoming U.S. President and his administration on one of the most important international negotiations we have ever faced as a country,” she wrote on X.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford was less directly critical, but emphasized that, “Now more than ever, the interests of Canadian workers and families need to come before political or party ambitions.”

In the wake of Trudeau’s announcement, Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, made an appeal for serious leadership. “The geopolitical plates are moving in ways that require experienced leaders with a clear sense of service & consequence,” he said in a social media post.